Nobody’s Talking Now Lakeside Boys Quiet Detractors With Success

Hard work, maturity and girls have helped resurrect the struggling Lakeside High School boys basketball program.

“The girls (basketball team) winning at district and going to state (in 1995), they think we can’t win,” Knights junior Glen Lambert said. “It’s motivation.

“Everyone has been on the losing teams. Everyone wants to go to state. (Losing is) how it used to be. People look at us different (now). It’s a team. This year, we’re consistent.”

Lakeside (12-3 overall, 5-0 in North Star League) strengthened its hold in league over the weekend, dropping Mullan 90-78 and Falls Christian 69-55.

What makes the sweep more impressive is that the Knights were without scoring leader, 6-foot-4 senior post Dan Montague (12.3 points per game), who has mononucleosis, and Lambert (10 ppg), who was ill.

“One of the benefits of what we have here is we have a lot of quality kids with strong basketball skills,” Lakeside coach Greg Stutzman said. “There’s not one kid who is going to average 28 points per game.”

Instead, Stutzman rotates nine players. “I could start any of those kids and not hurt us,” he added. “The thing of it is we’re very young. We’re playing with juniors and sophomores.”

The Knights also like the up-tempo, wide-open offensive and pressure defensive style of Stutzman, which the fourth-year coach best describes as “helter-skelter.”

The Knights average 66.4 ppg, putting up 75 to 80 field-goal attempts each game, including an average of 23 from 3-point range.

“We’re a 3-point (shooting) team,” said Lambert, a 5-10 point guard. “We can all handle the ball. We can all shoot. No one will hesitate; we don’t take bad shots.”

Junior James Twoteeth (12.2 ppg) is Lakeside’s top 3-point threat. The 5-8 left-hander averages 40 percent from beyond the 19-foot, 9-inch arc, while the team hits 30 percent.

The Knights take care of the ball inside, too. They are led by Montague, 6-2 junior forward Brendon Nelson (8.9 ppg) and 6-2 senior center Lyle Meshell (5.7 ppg).

“It comes easier and easier every year,” Lambert said. “My freshman year was turnovers, turnovers. My sophomore year didn’t help … finally. Before I could handle the ball, now I pick up the dribble and I’m a lot smarter.”

Lakeside’s most successful season came in 1990-91, the year Plummer and Worley consolidated. The Knights finished 18-4, winning the State A-4 consolation title.

Meshell and Montague played on an 0-21 team their freshmen year in ‘92-93, which was also Stutzman’s first season and the school’s second in A-3. The Knights were 2-18 in ‘93-94, but climbed to 12-10 last season after being reclassified from A-3 to A-4. Lakeside’s junior varsity, currently 12-2, went 16-2 last year.

The Knights are now receiving votes in the state poll.

“It’s all a team effort, because every night there are three to four players who score in double figures,” said senior Everett Wolfe said. “It’s not one person standing out. It ain’t no teeter-totter, it’s all level. Nobody carries us. It’s just we all do the work.”

And when the Knights dictate tempo, “it’s our game, if we can get the ball moving up and fill the lanes for fast shots, quick shots,” Meshell said with a nod.

“I knew, probably my sophomore year, once Glen (Lambert) and Brendon (Nelson) and James (Twoteeth) came up their freshmen year, that this was going to be our team,” Meshell added.

A handful of Knights started lifting weights last spring.

“The girls were teasing us, telling us we always choke,” Lambert explained. “I was tired of hearing that.”

Lakeside boosted its confidence with a non-league sweep over Deary, the powerhouse State A-4 eight-man football champion. The Mustangs squashed the young Knights 50-0 in less than two quarters during a first-round football playoff game last fall.

“All my uncles, my whole family, said the game is going to be over at halftime, just like in football,” Lambert said. “We hit some clutch free throws in the closing seconds that wrapped it up.”

Trailing Deary by 16 points, Lakeside rallied for a 60-55 win on Dec. 15.

“Even if we fall behind early, we know we can come back and still win,” Stutzman said.

As well as silence those Lakeside girls.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo