The Lake Shore Boys Varsity Basketball team earned a #4 seed in the Section VI, Class A1 play-offs with a strong second half of their league season, winning 6 of their last 7 divisional games.  The 4^th seed berth matched the Eagles against Bennett High of the Yale Cup City League in a pre-quarterfinal at Lake Shore.  The Eagles were led by senior Kyle DeNisco (18 points) and 6’4” sophomore Sean Bellomo (15 points / 11 rebounds).  Senior Billy Petersen and junior Jason Radwan contributed 12 and 10 points respectively as the boys from Angola outscored their city opponents 43-26 in the second half.  The win vaulted the Eagles into the quarterfinals against the upset winner and #12 seeded Hutch-Tech.

Lake Shore came out strong against Tech and shut down the high scoring Engineers.  Playing a hybrid type defense to shut down the penetration of Hutch-Tech, LSC kept the game a low scoring affair.  Unfortunately for the Eagles, the ball was not dropping for them on this night as they were eliminated 52-51.  This scoring drought was compounded by the fact that the Eagles leading scorer and “go to guy” DeNisco, was sidelined with foul problems most of the game.  Coach Dan Gerken noted that this had a huge impact on the outcome of the game.  “Kyle was working hard on both ends of the floor and had a couple of calls go against him.  When he is on the floor, teams have difficulty trapping, pressing and playing zone against us because of his ball handling skills and his marksmanship from the perimeter.  Without him and given the fact that the ball was not going in for us, we struggled.”  The Eagles lost the lead late in the fourth quarter, but reclaimed it when DeNisco connected from 23 feet out to give LSC a 51-50 lead with 14 seconds left.  But, the Engineers in-bounded the ball quickly, before the Eagles could call time-out, and went the length of the floor for a tough lay-up that gave Hutch a 52-51 lead.  The Eagle cagers were not done yet.  They quickly in-bounded the ball and moved it from the middle of the floor to Radwan on the wing for a strong drive to the hoop.  His attempt was tipped by Hutch-Tech’s 6’4” center Wayne Williams and it fell off short, sending the 12^th seeded Engineers to the Class A1 Final Four at Buffalo State College and ending the Eagles late season dream run.  Lake Shore finished the season at 11 wins and 11 loses after being 4-8 at one point in the year.

Coach Gerken and the guys would like to thank all their wonderful fans and families for their support throughout the year.  Gerken noted, “It is tough to say good-bye to your seniors and know they will never wear the Green and White again.  I thanked them for the commitment to our program and assured them that if they retain what they have learned about being a team, being loyal and being driven toward a goal, they will be successful in their future endeavors.  I will miss them.”