Photo by Jake McNeill Lakeview forward Megan Schwartz (4) drives toward the basket to attempt a layup during the first half of a prep girls basketball game against Renville County West on Tuesday in Cottonwood. Schwartz tied Brynn Stensrud and Anah Schmidt with a team-high 12 points as the Lakers defeated RCW 63-35

COTTONWOOD — Through grit and persistence, the Lakeview girls basketball team wore down the visiting Renville County West Jaguars in the teams’ Tuesday night matchup. The Lakers dominated the hustle stats early before finding a rhythm halfway through the first half and riding that wave to a 63-35 victory.

Lakeview head coach Mike Imes in particular credited the team’s post players, such as Megan Schwartz, Carmen Varpness, Aleiah Rosenau and Anah Schmidt, for their effort on the boards, the team’s second rotation for keeping the group fresh, and the team’s defensive prowess as a whole in the game.

“I was really proud of our defense. 15 points in the first half is good defense, that’s what we’ve been working on all year,” Imes said. “We’re trying to hold teams under 40 and we did it tonight.”

Lakeview finished the game with 16 steals, including four from Brynn Stensrud and another three from Savanna Louwagie. Varpness also logged a steal and a block.

Stensrud and RCW’s Maggie Rice each scored a basket in the game’s opening minute, but both teams went scoreless for more than four minutes from there. It wasn’t until Brook Gunlogson hit a go-ahead fadeaway with 13 minutes remaining that the drought ended, but RCW responded with a tying bucket immediately after.

From there, however, Schwartz took control to push Lakeview ahead. She scored 6 of her team’s next 7 points as the Lakers went on an 11-0 run. 

As the half progressed, Lakeview’s lead steadily ballooned. They led by as many as 19 points and went into halftime with a 33-15 advantage behind Schwartz’s 12 points, Stensrud’s 7 points, and another 6 from Gunlogson.

The Lakers’ scoring efforts were well-balanced from the opening tip to the final buzzer. Stensrud, Schwartz and Schmidt each recorded 12 points on the night, Gunlogson added another 10 and Varpness and Rosenau contributed 7 and 8 respectively.

“We talked about it last night [after a loss to No. 10 Hancock], Brynn and Anah did way too much of the scoring, we didn’t have other kids step up, so that was a pretty good talk,” Imes said. “We need other people to step up and be willing to take some of that offensive burden on.”

Imes in particular credited Schwartz and Rosenau with being willing to step up. He also noted that with the team playing 10 players for significant rotation minutes — down from 10 with Jovie Benson being sick on Tuesday — he wanted the team to feel like every player was important and felt that they did that.

The Lakers struggled to knock down the long ball, going 0 of 8 from 3-point range, but shot a solid 36% on 3-point attempts in the game.

“I want you all shooting if you’ve got the open shot. We got some easy transition buckets early, that kind of got a couple of girls going, but just kind of a nice, well-rounded game,” Imes said. 

Even when the Lakers’ shots weren’t falling, they were able to find ways to keep the ball out of RCW’s hands. Lakeview dominated the offensive glass to extend possessions and wrought havoc with its full-court press to generate extra possessions. 

“That was our goal coming into tonight because the first time we played, we really got after [RCW] on the boards pretty hard,” Imes said. “Maggie, their big post player, got in foul trouble early, so the whole talk after that was get the ball inside, inside, inside and pound the boards because we had a big size advantage and took advantage pretty well.”

Lakeview finished the game with 19 offensive rebounds, including seven from Schwartz, five from Varpness and three from Stensrud. Varpness and Schwartz tied for a team-high 13 total rebounds while Stensrud added another six.

Rosenau caught fire in the second half after a scoreless first half. She scored 8 points in the first 10 minutes after the break, helping Lakeview extend its lead up to 30 points at 55-25.

Lakeview improves to 13-6 with the win and will head to Granite Falls to take on Yellow Medicine East (8-10) on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. A victory would gave the Lakers their first back-to-back wins since their six-game win streak from Dec. 14 through Jan. 4. 

Imes said he’s excited to finally get to hold a practice today after his team played five games in eight days. He also credited YME for its size and tough zone, which are two things Lakeview will be looking to hone in on.

“We’re going to have to spend some time on our zone offense, but a lot of it is kind of just regathering,” Imes said of today’s practice. “We’ve had a tough two games to start the week here, let’s have a good practice tomorrow. We’re at the mentality of one game at a time right now because we’re nearing the end.”

Imes added that with six games remaining, the Lakers are near their expectations for themselves but are still focused on stacking up more wins as they prepare for the postseason.