Sweet revenge as Bullets beat Lakers

BY MICHAEL PIASETZKI

If you’re an area fan of community inter-city basketball, there really is nothing better than a good old-fashioned Brookwood Bullets-West Island Lakers match-up, at any level or any gender.

The latest instalment, a midget AAA boys’ affair, unfolded Sunday afternoon at John Rennie High School in Pointe Claire. It was the second tussle this season between the two rivals. The Pointe Claire-based Lakers defeated the Bullets, who call Pierrefonds home, 69-66 in late November at Riverdale High School in Pierrefonds. With one second left on the clock in that game, the Bullets had a chance to possibly tie the game with a throw-in but couldn’t convert.

Sunday’s final score appeared relatively close on the scoreboard, a 64-58 Bullets revenge victory. In reality, though, it wasn’t. Observers never really had a sense the Lakers had an opportunity to take this one. A determined Bullets squad that brought its A-game in terms of hard work and execution — for the first three quarters anyway — coupled with a Lakers team that entered the contest seemingly emotionally drained off a hard-fought 75-73 double-overtime road victory over the Sun Youth Hornets less than 24 hours earlier. The fact the Lakers were missing three regulars, including Nikolas Chyzenski, Kevin Paul and Kevin Easey for various personal reasons certainly didn’t help either.

“We told our kids whoever would make the fewest mistakes would win this game,” said Bullets head coach Adrian Salazar. “That’s really what happened. We started to make a few ourselves in the fourth quarter and let them get back into it. We tried to limit their shooting from the outside. We knew they had guys who could drive from in close. We tried to get in their faces, particularly their big shooters.”

The strategy, along with the fact every time the Lakers managed to build up momentum they allowed the Bullets to answer right back with a run of their own, worked for the first three quarters. After putting together a slim 12-11 first-quarter lead, the Bullets increased it to 31-22 at the half and 51-36 after three periods.

The fourth quarter, by far the most exciting period of the contest, proved a different tale. For some reason, the Bullets decided a victory was in their back pockets, easing up on intensity, allowing the Lakers to crawl back into the game. With Bill Melmihoub’s strong shooting and John Cameron playing well under the basket, the Lakers came as close as four points with a little under two minutes left. However, when Cameron went down with an ankle injury with a little over a minute left in the game, the Bullets smelled blood, and as had been the case all game, answered back with four consecutive points to seal the deal.

“If there was one positive to come out of this game, it was the fact our boys didn’t give up,” said Lakers head coach Steve Brayne. “The Bullets played a very strong game, though. We ended strong, but it took a while to get going.”

Belmihoub ended up with 22 points on the day while Jonathan Serjue led the Bullets, also with 22.