Lakes gets hot just in time

His offensive juggernaut reduced to a jugger-not thanks to an effective Leyden defense and stubborn rims, Lakes coach Brian Phelan just let his basketball team play.

For three quarters at Grant on Saturday, he watched his players miss shot after shot, many near the basket.

Phelan never bothered to call a timeout.

"What am I going to say, 'Make a layup' ?" he said. "There's no sense using one.

"Maybe we over-shot. We came in and practiced today and shot a lot today."

In the fourth quarter finally, Lakes made a lot of shots -- enough to pull out a 53-46 win in opening-round action of the Grant Holiday Tournament.

"I think we controlled the tempo right until they went on their run," Leyden coach Bill Heisler said. "I think once they kind of got going with that, momentum swung."

Lakes (6-4), which extended its winning streak to five games, came in averaging almost 70 points per game but had only 27 after three quarters and trailed by six.

Lakes was 11 of 43 from the floor entering the fourth.

"Eventually our shots were going to fall," sophomore forward John Androus said. "So we just kept our confidence up and kept shooting."

Trey Williams opened the fourth with back-to-back 3-pointers to draw Lakes even at 33-33. Leyden's Terrence Reynolds answered with a 3 of his own, but Lakes scored the next 10 points, including six in a row by Kevin Guirand.

Guirand scored 12 of his game-high 22 points in the final quarter. The veteran forward started the second half on the bench.

"I thought we'd put the best five players out there from the first half and he wasn't in the top five," Phelan said. "I thought the sophomore, Marcell (Kirkmanbey), was busting his butt. He was going for rebounds, trying to post up. So we went with it, and obviously Kevin responded well."

Lakes was 8-of-12 shooting in the fourth and also went 8 of 8 from the foul line. The Eagles outscored Leyden's Eagles 26-13 in the quarter -- nearly equaling their point total for the first three quarters.

"We were trying to play soft man-to-man, force them into the perimeter a little bit," Heisler said. "We executed the game plan pretty well. It's just becoming a very poor habit for us in that we're falling apart in the fourth quarter. Hopefully experience is going to help us grow through it, but right now it's tough."

Daron Guyton led Leyden (2-8) in scoring with 15 points, including an alley-oop dunk off a dish from Joe Natale in the first half. Anthony Cushion sank a trio of 3-pointers and finished with 11 points, while Alejandro Regalado had 10 points and 8 rebounds.

Lakes also got double-digit points from Williams (13), while Kevin Rice added 9. Androus had 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 points. Kirkmanbey grabbed 8 boards.

"We missed a lot of layups, missed some shots," Phelan said. "But the kids stuck with it."