GAINESVILLE — Todd Cottrell has been there before. Now the fourth-year Lakeview Academy boys basketball coach will get to show his Lions what the Final Four is all about.
Lakeview Academy held off fellow Region 8-A foe Athens Christian 63-55 Wednesday night in the quarterfinals of the Class A Private playoffs to advance to the program’s first-ever semifinals.
“I’m just really excited for the kids,” said Cottrell, who guided Gainesville to the 2013 Class AAAAA championship game before falling to powerhouse Miller Grove, 52-47, in the finals. “It’s hard to say if that will mean anything. We’re just going to enjoy this one first then we’ll try and get ready.”
The second-seeded Lions (25-5) now will head to the Cobb Civic Center on Saturday at 8 p.m. to take on sixth-seed Southwest Atlanta Christian, which stunned No. 3 seed North Cobb Christian 64-53 in the quarterfinals.
“It doesn’t matter to us who it is. It’s going to be a tremendous challenge for us no matter what,” Cottrell said. “We’re looking forward to it. But I’m sure we’ll have to play much better than we did (Wednesday).”
It was the third meeting of the season for the two teams, with Lakeview having won the previous two times, including a nail-biting 43-41 win in the Region 8-A championship game.
The third installment was much like the first two. The two teams battled back-and-forth for three quarters before Lakeview was able to pull away in the fourth quarter.
Tre Gober was the spark for the Lions pouring in a career-high 32 points on a variety of shots. He scored seven points in a 15-2 run late in the first quarter to erase a quick 7-2 Eagles lead to open the game. He had eight in the third quarter to erase another Athens Christian lead and give the Lions the lead for good.
They needed everything he had with leading scorer Drew Cottrell shadowed and double-teamed most of the game. Cottrell finished with just six points and just one 3-pointer.
“Tre was phenomenal,” Cottrell said. “He was great on both ends of the court for us. Our strength is in our depth. They keyed on Drew so we needed other guys to step up.”
Josh Randolph added 16 points, including six points and two assists in the fourth quarter, as Lakeview extended a slim 48-44 lead at the end of the third quarter to a 60-50 advantage with 2:06 left in the game.
The key for the Lakeview defense was slowing down Athens Christian leading scorer Richard Jibunar. The junior torched the Lions in the region championship but was held in check for most of Wednesday’s contest finishing with just 12 points. Jibunar had six of the Eagles first 11 point but got in serious foul trouble with three fouls before the end of the first quarter.
Quincy Canty paced the Eagles with 15 points. Tyler Johnson added 13 for Athens Christian.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2017/3/507244/class-a-playoffs-lakeview-boys-make-more-history-with-first-ever-semifinal-berth