Boys Basketball: Lake Central wears down Vikings

Updated: May 9, 2012 10:04AM

VALPARAISO — The game planning was there for Valparaiso. Plenty of switching defenses — a little man-to-man and some full court zone traps.

For the most part, the execution was pretty good, but not great.

All the strategy for Valparaiso was still like shooting rubber bullets at an armored car.

Lake Central broke a sweat, but not much of one, in a 62-48 victory over the Vikings on Friday in the Duneland Athletic Conference opener for both teams.

For the Indians, the win was big. The Vikings aren’t the team they were the last couple of seasons but they’ll get better and LC definitely doesn’t have the kind of team it was two or three years ago. The Indians are much better.

They are immensely gifted and they’re also aware of the score.

The last time they won at Valparaiso’s gym was 2003.

“This was huge,” Lake Central coach Dave Milausnic said. “Any time you can win, you skate out of here.”

The big man for the Indians was Tyler Wideman, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, who is a solid 240 pounds.

Wideman finished with a career-high 25 points and seven rebounds. It was a smooth 25. Most of the points came on layups. There were a few midrange jumpers. A couple of offensive put backs.

A lot of them came because the Vikings decided to play a box-and-one against Glenn Robinson III. Robinson finished with 16 points and five rebounds.

“It was all in the flow of the offense,” said Wideman, who didn’t know it was a career high.

There were fleeting moments early when the Vikings looked like they could make it close.

A 3-pointer by Tyler Doane with 2:13 left in the first quarter pulled the Vikings to within two.

The Indians were hamstrung by nine first-half turnovers — four of them coming in the first quarter.

They slowly started to wear down the Vikings in the second quarter. A basket by Alex Ratic with 1:44 left in the half gave the Indians their first double-digit lead at 25-14.

They were ahead 30-18 at halftime after Wideman made a basket inside off a half-court pass from Robinson with the Vikings trying to trap LC.

The game got away in the third quarter after Tye Wilburn opened with a 3-pointer, putting the Indians ahead 33-18. Buckets by Taylor Lenhert and Wideman gave the Indians a 17-point lead. LC never looked back.

“That run really hurt us,” Valparaiso coach Joe Otis said.

Otis wasn’t at all displeased with the effort.

The Vikings have virtually no experienced varsity players back from last year. Drew Boetel, the starting point guard, has 20 quarters of varsity playing time. That’s tops on the team.

Otis said his practices are long with lots of instruction.

“We’re spending an enormous amount of time teaching,” he said.

For the most part, Milausnic was happy with the way his team played.

“If we could’ve got some of the long rebounds and shaved some turnovers, I’d be really happy,” he said. “But it’s only the third game.”

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