<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
The Lakewood Lancers got off to a slow—very<\/i><\/span> slow—start against the West Valley Mustangs Friday afternoon in the Ocean View Tournament of Champions, and they finished pretty much the same, falling 67-58 in the consolation bracket.<\/span><\/p>\n The Lancers got off to their worst start of the year, finishing the first quarter down 20-4. <\/span>Lakewood coach Matt Ruiz had a very simple explanation for his team’s poor first-quarter performance: “Physically, they were much better than we are.” <\/span>Though they were outsized, and lacked a perimeter threat all game (with season-leader in scoring Jared Garber held to just two points), Lakewood battled back with good transition play and a few hot hands, and managed to tie the score at 44 to end the third quarter, following a 12-0 run to close the period.<\/span><\/p>\n But in the fourth it was all Mustangs again, as West Valley opened with a 10-2 run and never looked back. <\/span>Leaders for the Lancers were Jonathan Snagg, who dropped in 20, and who showed at times the potential to develop into a consistent leader (though he only scored three in the final quarter). <\/span>Victor Oragwu scored 15 for Lakewood—the leaders for West Valley were Eric Lawton, who led all scorers with 26 points, and Joe Burton, who added 14. <\/span>Lawton, a versatile, athletic guard exposed Lakewood’s lack of overall comparative athleticism, while Burton, a 6’8″ 290-pound center (who was 2-2 from 3-point range) exposed their biggest weakness: the lack of a legitimate big in the post. <\/span>All game the Lancers found it difficult to stop the Mustangs in the key without fouling.<\/span><\/p>\n Another factor in the game was experience—Lakewood only has three players on its 13-man roster who played varsity last year. <\/span>“We’re very, very young,” said Ruiz. <\/span>“But that’s why you play in tournaments like this—to get the young guys more experience.” <\/span><\/p>\n Snagg on the perimeter, guarded by Burton.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Perhaps the youngest team in the Moore League this season, the Lancers’ inexperience cost them in a tournament game against West Valley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5163"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=5163"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/i304.photobucket.com\/albums\/nn191\/LBPOSTphotos\/Sports\/nagg.jpg\")
<\/span><\/p>\n