Share the ball. Hard work. Selflessness.
Those are the tent poles of coach Matt Bradshaw.
You certainly can’t argue with the results so far.
Roddy Gayle had 29 points as Lewiston-Porter topped CSAT, 73-54, in a Niagara Frontier League basketball game Tuesday night.
The Lancers improve to 3-0 in league play, 7-0 overall.
“We have three words and if we just do these three things the outcome will take care of itself,” Bradshaw said. “Share the basketball. If we are selfless and if we have effort everything will take care of itself.”
Early on it looked as if Lew-Port would run away with the game as they used their up tempo style and a series of fast breaks to build a commanding 20-6 lead after the first quarter.
A couple of 3’s, courtesy of Leonard Harris (16 points), gave the Eagles some life, but they were still in a deep hole at halftime 39-17.
CSAT was down, but they weren’t out.
CSAT responded with an onslaught of outside shots by Jamyier Patton and Harris that pulled them within six points, 47-41, with 1:21 left in the third.
“We just kinda told them we got two options,” said CSAT coach Camilo Hoyos.
“We can go and let them keep running up the score or we can double back. Work and try and get back in the game. And our kids obviously chose the option to work back into the game.”
Hoyos felt that early on his team was in awe of Lew-Port and Gayle’s name. But once they settled in they gave the Lancers a good fight.
While the Eagles certainly worked hard to claw their way back into the game, there was a pocket of time when Lew-Port got away from their motto of share, selflessness and effort in unison. That opened the door for the Eagles.
The addition of Gayle, a freshman who transferred in from Niagara Falls, make the Lancers a formidable opponent.
Gayle helped the Wolverines capture their third straight Section VI Class AA title while earning All-NFL first team and All-State 10th team.
Gayle teamed with Jaylen Duff (14) and Trent Scott (12) gives the Lancers a core of skilled players who work well together and are strong at both ends of the floor.
“To me, two guys really took their game to another level tonight. And that was Trent and Roddy on defense,” Bradshaw said. “Roddy shut down Daighlyon Willoughby. That’s their best player… Trent played a hell of a defensive game. So defensively those guys took their game to another level.”
The Lancers as a whole played strong defense as they forced countless turnovers that resulted into buckets.
Gayle said it just comes down to everybody playing their role and doing whatever is asked of them for the greater good of the team.
“I try to be a leader. A scorer. Play defense. Do anything coach wants me to do,” Gayle said.
For Bradshaw, 7-0 is nice, but the real take away is getting better each day. Because the schedule isn’t getting any easier.
“I don’t look at the rankings. I don’t look at the standings. I just want our team to get better,” Bradshaw said. “We’ve got a rough stretch coming up. We’re playing Nichols on Friday. Then we got Lockport, Park, O’Hara and the Falls all in two weeks. What I take away from this is those boxes that we checked. We played well and Trent and Roddy defensively were great.”
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