Lions back on track against Rams

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LAMOILLE – It has been a rough start to their 2008-09 season, but the LaMoille/Ohio Lions made a move toward possibly turning a corner Saturday night.

Jesse Monroe’s 16 fourth quarter points helped lead the Lions to a 61-48 non-conference victory over the Rams of Riverdale.

It was a game the Lions led, start to finish, never having trailed even once.

“We played better, and if you play better, you have an opportunity to win,” said L/O coach Terry Nelson. “Last year about this time, we went on a roll and won like, four or five in a row, and we lost one, and then we won another four or five in a row. So hopefully we can do the same thing this year.

“Tuesday, we play DePue at Ohio, which should be fun going over there to Ohio. I’m excited about playing in Ohio.”

Justin Suplee was definitely the key to a fast start for the Lions. Suplee drained three, three-pointers along the way to netting 11 of his 14 points in the first eight minutes.

Suplee’s third trey of the first frame gave the Lions a 15-4 lead. L/O settled for a 15-8 edge after one period.

“Suplee came out smoking in that first quarter, there,” Nelson said. “Jesse will give up the ball. He can score for us, but if the other guys are rolling, he can get the ball to them.

“Suplee got us started right. We’ve come out of the blocks slow a few times this year, and he got us out in front. We stayed out in front, and I thought we kept our composure (late).

“This is a pretty good team that we played tonight (10-6 coming in). They’ve beaten some good teams, and they’ve got 10 wins already, so it was a good win for us, a real good win for us.”

Riverdale thrice cut its deficit to four points in the second quarter, but a Matt Monroe offensive putback gave the home team a 26-19 edge at the break.

“We’ve had a couple tough losses (recently), one Tuesday night and then one (Friday) night,” said Riverdale coach Jason Hendrix. “Tuesday night, we got bombed out of the gym by some of the best shooting I’ve seen. And then Friday night, at Erie, the complete opposite, we controlled the game a majority of the way and still found a way to lose.

“So right now, it seems like things are going against us. We got off to a really slow start again tonight, and I think things just kind of snowballed from there. We’re struggling with some confidence right now.

“I was impressed (with the Lions). LaMoille’s got athletes and size, and they flustered us with that.”

The Rams coolly drained the final seconds of the third period, and Wes Declercq drilled a three-pointer with 1.8 ticks left to pull Riverdale back within four points, 40-36, with eight minutes left to play.

“(We had) that two-minute stretch there where we cut it to four with some things that we can do. And then, right away after the timeout, it was the things that we can’t afford to do in the last two weeks that caused them to go back up by nine or 10,” Hendrix said. “And that’s kind of a summary of how our year is going. We can play great, and then we check out on (our) focus, and it goes right back down the toilet again.”

 Enter Jesse Monroe’s offensive outburst. Monroe almost single-handedly kept the Lions’ lead in double digits, with his sizzling five of seven field goals and six of eight free throw performances.

Tyler Smeltzly’s 10 points led the Rams (10-7).

• Tyler Moore (16 points) and Michael Elam (13) paced the younger Lions in scoring in the prelim contest, but the Rams won 67-49, by scoring 14 of the game’s final 16 points.

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