Bulldogs regroup, knock off Hagerstown

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LAPEL — The Lapel Bulldogs were lacking energy in Friday’s 27-point loss at Shenandoah. Thanks in part to a 7 a.m. Saturday practice and the support of the home crowd, that was not a problem for the Bulldogs Saturday night.

Sophomore Luke Richardson scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half, and the Bulldogs showed poise while Hagerstown unraveled, leading Lapel to a big bounce-back win, 66-57 against the Tigers.

With the win, Lapel improves to 13-8, while Hagerstown drops to 14-6 with its third-straight loss.

The Bulldogs stayed close in the first half despite shooting poorly and having two starters in early foul trouble. At halftime, Lapel had connected on just nine of 29 shots, and Richardson and Preston Scott were sitting out with two fouls. Juniors Josiah Hudson and Caleb Bloom picked up the slack, combining to score 17 points.

“In the first half, Caleb was huge for us off the bench,” coach Jimmie Howell said. “So did Josiah in the first half. Hudson and Bloom in the first half were really, really important.”

Midway through the first quarter and into the second, Bloom and Hudson scored 14 straight for the Bulldogs, including four free throws by Hudson after a foul and a technical foul on the Tigers. Bloom converted a 3-point play to give Lapel a 19-17 lead and, at the second quarter buzzer, buried a 3-point shot to send the teams to the locker room tied at 31.

Howell said, prior to the game, he wasn’t sure how the players would react following Friday’s loss. By halftime, he was happy with what he saw.

“I told my staff today that we would either play really well, or we wouldn’t play well at all,” he said. “Even though we were tied at halftime, I thought we played pretty well. We had three people with two fouls sitting on the bench that normally would have been in the game.”

Luke Richardson and his older brother, senior Jon Ross Richardson, answered the second-half bell in a big way. The duo combined to score all 12 third-quarter points for Lapel and the first 19 of the second half. On three straight possessions to start the fourth quarter, Luke Richardson got position on the interior and converted perfect feeds, one from Austin Lyons and two from Will Jones, into easy layups; he converted the third into a 3-point play and a 50-48 lead.

“Luke obviously had a great game,” Howell said. “He and Jon Ross both were solid.”

Lyons, who struggled offensively much of the night, started a decisive 10-1 run late in the fourth quarter with a pair of free throws, a basket on the interior and a big steal near midcourt. While the steal was a great play, what Lyons did after the steal was the bigger part of the play, Howell said.

“The smart thing is, he didn’t take it to the hole,” Howell said. “He didn’t have a clear path and he might have missed it.”

The result of the possession was two free throws by Jon Ross Richardson for a 56-51 lead. He connected twice more after Hagerstown was called for its second technical foul. Preston Scott scored on the ensuing possession for Lapel’s second four-point possession of the game and a nine-point lead, which they would maintain down the stretch.

Howell said the team was active against Hagerstown, which was a necessity against a team that, in many ways, is very similar to Shenandoah.

“We played with some energy tonight,” he said. “If we hadn’t played with energy, we wouldn’t have beaten that team. They have more players who can score than Shenandoah, but they’re very similar.”

Jon Ross Richardson finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in support of his younger brother’s big game. Hudson, who added nine points, and Lyons each handed out three assists.

In the junior varsity game, Hagerstown knocked off Lapel 42-37. Freshmen Diontre Valentine and Bryce Carpenter led the Bulldogs with 11 points each. Carpenter also had five rebounds and three blocked shots, while freshman Carson Huber and sophomore Dane Busch had three assists each.

Lapel will host Speedway at 7:30 p.m. Friday, a night during which Jon Ross Richardson, Jones and Andrew Hunt will be honored on Senior Night.

Vs. Shenandoah

The Shenandoah Raiders built momentum early with a tough zone defense and a highly efficient offense. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, that momentum got bigger and stronger, eventually rolling over the Lapel Bulldogs, leaving destruction in its wake.

Senior Gavin Griggs had a near perfect night, scoring 25 points, to lead Shenandoah to a 65-38 win against Lapel Friday, It was the Bulldogs’ worst loss in nearly three years.

Shenandoah improved to 14-4 with its fifth win in a row, while Lapel fell to 12-8, the loss snapping a modest three-game winning streak.

It was a game that the Raiders dominated from start to finish. They connected on 13 of 21 shots in the first half, including 6-for-8 on 3-point attempts as they raced out to a 33-12 lead at halftime. The Bulldogs had no success penetrating the Raider zone defense as Shenandoah went on first half scoring runs of 11-2 and 8-0 to build their lead.

Howell said the Bulldogs helped the Raiders with a lack of ball movement.

“The ball stuck in our hands,” he said. “We didn’t get any movement. They beat us in every way possible.”

Things didn’t get any better in the second half as the Raiders opened the third quarter on an 8-3 run. They were led by Griggs who, after scoring eight points in the first half, finished the game having made 12 of 13 shots for his 25 points. The Bulldogs simply had no answer on defense.

“We were playing man, trying to keep them from scoring, obviously,” Howell said. “The two things we wanted to do was take away Griggs’ left hand and (Chase Kinsey) and the 3-pointers. We obviously didn’t do anything we wanted to do.”

Kinsey added 13 points, including 3-of-6 from behind the arc in the first half, as the Raiders handed the Bulldogs their biggest loss since a 73-47 loss to Park Tudor on Feb. 24, 2014.

Junior Austin Lyons led Lapel with 11 points, all in the second half, and senior Jon Ross Richardson scored 10.

The junior varsity contest was far more competitive. Freshman Bryce Carpenter sank two free throws with 5.6 seconds left to lift the Bulldogs to a 39-38 win against the Raiders. Sophomore Dane Busch led Lapel with 13 points, and freshman Cole Alexander added 10. Carpenter also grabbed 10 rebounds, while freshman Carson Huber dished out four assists.