Article By: Jacob Robinson
PORT DOVER -- In the second half of the season opener, the Simcoe Sabres shot the lights out. Four days later they were still on a roll.
Following a performance in which they dropped nine three pointers against the Valley Heights Bears, the Simcoe senior boys basketball team returned to action in Port Dover and had three in the opening minutes to take a 10-point lead en route to an impressive 43-19 victory.
The hometown Lakers scored the first basket of the game and Simcoe responded by going on an 11-1 run, highlighted by a pair of threes from Tommy Tran and another by point guard Brandon Reaney. From that point on Simcoe never looked back, earning their 12th straight regular season victory dating back to last year.
"We're a shooting club and that's what we have to keep doing is shooting the ball. We're doing it well so far," said Reaney, who scored 16 in the win.
With a big lead early on, Simcoe focused their efforts on the defensive side of the ball, something they weren't overly pleased with following the opener.
"We just had to apply good pressure. (The Bears) got way too many easy baskets in that Valley game and we tried to focus a little more defensively this game and we did pretty well with that," Reaney said.
"Our half court press, we got with that and they didn't break it too many times -- we were able to recover on defence pretty well."
Port Dover came up with some big blocks down low -- a pair courtesy Brandon Waldon -- and Tim Peters was his usual solid self at the point. The Sabres just kept coming in waves.
"We've got to pick it up, pick up the intensity on defence still," said Peters, who scored eight.
"Their shooting was really good at the start and we had a little miscommunication on defence that we've got to work on, but they played really well, you've got to give it to them."
Despite the game being out of reach, that didn't stop the Lakers from hustling for every loose ball, charging up the floor and rebounding with vigor. No matter what the score, said Peters, the effort his team displays simply won't change.
"This team won't ever give up. Coach (Peter Annable) said at halftime, 'No matter what the score is, just give 100 per cent,'" he explained. "I think everyone did that on offence and defence towards the end. We don't care what the score is, we're going to play hard."
Adding a cherry on the top of their impending win, the Sabres earned some style points in the late going as Cody Cunningham tossed an alley-oop inbounds pass to centre Kevin Allemang for two points. That was followed up by a Josh Wardell jumper at the buzzer. The Sabres will host Waterford (1-1) on Thursday where they hope to keep their win streak alive.
"Focus on wins for now," said Reaney. "Just being humble and take it easy."
The Lakers will welcome Valley Heights Thursday as they look to get into the win column.
"We've got the basics, we just need to keep working hard and hopefully it'll come around," said Peters.
"We've put in some new plays on offence, we've got them but we haven't worked on them enough in practice. Just fine tune a lot of things we've been working on.
"Just working hard, that's our main thing."
In other league action, Holy Trinity topped Waterford in a high scoring affair 55-33. Josh Johnson (17) Eric Weber (12) and Andrew Mattan (12) led the way for the Titans, while Jeffery Paul and Tyler Myers each scored eight points for Waterford.
In the junior contest the Wolves stayed undefeated with a 46-31 win. Tyler Simon led all scorers with 17 and WDHS teammate Corey MacLean had 16. Mark Gubbles had eight for Holy Trinity.
In Walsingham, the defending senior champion Delhi Raiders scored their first victory against the Valley Heights Bears.
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