Despite a furious comeback effort that brought them back from down nineteen to within four points, the Lakewood Lancers’ season ended in the second round of the CIF playoffs on Friday, thanks to Kyle Fuller and the rest of the Rancho Verde Mustangs.  Well, mostly thanks to Fuller, who had over 60% of his team’s points, scoring 40 as the Lancers fell 65-57.

Early on, it was Sonny Reese for the Mustangs who looked like the scorer, hitting two early threes to start the separation.  Nothing was falling for Lakewood, who shot 2-10 in the first quarter, ending it down seven points despite forcing four turnovers with a very effective press.  The Lancers went on a 7-0 run to tie the game at 15, and then it turned into the Fuller show.  Struggling early with his shot, Fuller drew fouls, and led his team on a 13-0 run, the first six points of which came from the charity stripe.  Then the threes started falling, and by halftime, he had 17 points and 7 boards, while Lakewood continued to struggle offensively, going just 7-21.

“They’re a very good defensive team,” pointed out Lakewood coach Matt Ruiz after the game.  “They made it hard to drive, and we settled for jumpers.”

In the second half, the Lancers seemed to solve the Rancho defense, thanks primarily to the Herculean efforts of Jonathan Snagg and Dominique Lainer, who created lanes in getting to the rack.  Snagg was the only Lancer with a hot hand, dropping a lot of runners, and ending up with 17 points and a team-leading eight boards, on 8-13 shooting (the rest of the team shot 10-33). 

But every time Lakewood rallied, Fuller answered.  Lanier scored five in a row as part of an 8-0 run to pull the Lancers within 11 in the third…but then Fuller hit a three.  Early in the fourth, Lakewood cut it down to ten…then Fuller hit a three.  Garber stole the ball and scored, then made the and-one to cut the lead to five late in the game…but then Fuller ran down the court, drew a foul, and hit a free throw (he made another three to seal the win).  He hit his last five threes, and shot 7-10 from beyond the arc in the game, going 11-14 from the free throw line as well.

“We knew he was that good,” said Ruiz, whose team saw the Vanderbilt-signee Fuller score 42 on them earlier in the year.  “We tried to keep forcing him further and further back, but he kept scoring.  We did what we wanted in that regard, but he still hit the shots.”

Ruiz said he was proud of his team’s spirit throughout a difficult league season and in the comeback effort—after seeing the tenacity of his group, it would be hard to disagree with him.