Edkins, Carmel close out Lake Park
Greg Edkins came up with his own 8-0 run between the first and second quarters to help Carmel Catholic take the lead — and the Corsairs never looked back.
Edkins’ basket with :50 left in the first quarter gave Carmel a 9-8 lead.
The 6-foot senior guard then scored Carmel’s first 6 points of the second quarter for a 15-8 lead with 4:21 left in the first half. The last two baskets were the result of his own steals.
That was enough for the Corsairs to hold off Lake Park 42-36 in the first round of the Wheeling 35th annual Hardwood Classic to improve to 5-4. The Corsairs meet Notre Dame, which soundly defeated Alcott, in an 8:45 p.m. Thursday game at Wheeling.
“He’s one of the toughest kids we have,” said Carmel coach Tim Bowen. “He always gets the assignments to guard the others team’s best guard.”
“I love, and we love, to play defense,” said Edkins. “We take alot of pride in it. With the defense we were able to get some breakaway baskets. When they made some runs at us we kept our composure. We’ve been in a lot of close games. We have to show that we can keep closing games like this.”
Edkins finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals. Center Cullen Barr scored 12 points to go with 7 rebounds and three steals. Nickai Poyser added 8 points.
On the other side Lake Park coach Josh Virostko was disappointed in his Lancers’ lack of effort.
“I commend Carmel on their effort,” Virotsko. “They wanted it more. It was the worst effort I have seen in a game from a Lake Park team as long as I have been here. You could say it was the holiday, a late night game, etc. What it comes down to is we did not play as a mature team. I had very little to say. Now that we are on the other side of the bracket, let’s see how they respond tomorrow.”
Leading 18-12 at the half, the Corsairs scored the first 5 points of the quarter to lead 23-12 with 6:47 left in the third period.
Jeremy Caboor (6 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) started a comeback with a basket, which was followed by a score from Carlos Cortez to shave the lead to 27-20 after three quarters.
Lake Park pulled to 39-36 with 1:04 left on a Cortez basket from an assist from Caboor but could not score the rest of the way.
Barr hit 3 of 5 free throws to close the game.
Lake Park’s Sean Moore played a steady game to lead the Lancers with 14 points.