West beats East to stay unbeaten

Firebirds own the free-throw line against district rival.

Ali Barnes of Lakota West puts up a shot against Ian Owens of Lakota East on Tuesday at Lakota East High School. View more photos from the game at Journal-News.com. Contributed photo by Robert Leifheit

Rob Ali Barnes of Lakota West puts up a shot against Ian Owens of Lakota East on Tuesday at Lakota East High School. View more photos from the game at Journal-News.com. Contributed photo by Robert Leifheit

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By John Bombatch, Staff Writer Updated 1:05 AM Wednesday, December 21, 2011

LIBERTY TWP. — Playing on the road before a noisy, standing-room-only crowd, Lakota West claimed a 56-51 victory Tuesday night over district rival Lakota East.

The Firebirds held a 10-point lead at the break, fizzled a bit in the fourth quarter, then pulled away with two minutes to go to remain unbeaten at 3-0 overall and in the Greater Miami Conference.

“We hit free throws, which we haven’t been doing a good job of. And we thought we made some good adjustments defensively that at the end would help us a bit, but in the end it was free throws,” West coach Sean Van Winkle said. “And Tyler Williams played a whale of a ball game. He was guarding what could be one of the best players in the entire GMC (East’s Stedman Lowry), and did an incredible job.”

East (1-3, 0-3 GMC) led the game 49-48 with 3:23 left to play, but Williams evened things up with a free throw. After East failed to score on its next possession, West’s Ali Barnes found Williams open in the right corner, and Williams drained a 3-pointer to put the Firebirds out in front for good. Kayaune Ross then hit four consecutive free throws in the final 40 seconds to seal the win.

Considering that the last time the two teams played, East bashed the Firebirds in their own gym (74-34), a road win for West was sweet.

“After getting blown out in our home gym like that, it feels great to come into their gym and show them that we can still compete,” Williams said.

Williams led West with 15 points, 10 of which came in the second half. He guarded Lowry for the entire game and held the talented junior guard just below his season average. Lowry averages 17.5 points a game, and finished with 15 to lead East.

Monty Boykins (11 points) and Jackson Blue (10) also finished in double-figure scoring for West. East’s Keith Brady and Zach Panzecca both scored a dozen points each.

“West beat us in every phase of the game,” East coach Wally Vickers said.

“They outcoached us, outprepared us, outhustled us, outrebounded us, outshot us, so they handled us. They came into our gym and beat us. They’ve got one of the most talented teams in Cincinnati — Boykins played well, Williams had a great game, they play smart and together — they’re an outstanding team. They’re certainly a heckuva lot better than we are.”

West doesn’t play again until next year. They’ll return to action Jan. 3 at Hamilton. East will play four games in the annual Beach Ball Classic, Dec. 26-29 in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

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