MILLBURY – Lake’s boys basketball team shared the Northern Buckeye Conference championship last season.

The Flyers believe they have the ingredients to repeat their championship this season.
Lake returns three starters and two other lettermen from last season when they were 17-6 overall and 11-3
in the conference.
The Flyers’ returning starters are sophomore guards Connor Bowen (5-foot-11) and Jared Rettig (6-2), and
junior post player Jayce Vancena (6-5, 225 pounds).
Also returning are 5-11 senior guard Ben Swartz and 6-5, 270-pound senior post Marcus Pierce.
"So far, so good." Lake coach Ryan Bowen said of his team’s early practices and scrimmages.
"We have a good group of kids who are hard working, the kind of kids who will run through a wall
for you.
"We can compete again for the league championship, just like we did last year. They’re just as
hungry to win to win it again. Their goal is to keep what they have."
The Flyers graduated five players from last season, including NBC player of the year Ra’Shad Smith, who
scored just over 19 points per game last season; Josh Tantari, who averaged 12 ppg.
But Lake believes it it can help make up for their loss offensively with scoring by committee.
Rettig and Connor Bowen, the head coach’s son, are being counted upon to score more this season and the
Flyers will look to score inside more with Vancena and Pierce in the post.
"I still want to get up and down the floor as much as possible, but with the two big bodies we have,
we want to try to get the ball down to the post," coach Bowen said. "We have guards who can
shoot it and create their own shots. We have post players who can rebound and go. We’ll be balanced this
year. Last year, we were guard-dominated and that’s how I like to play, but when we have two posts like
we have, we want to get them the ball. Our scoring could be more balanced offensively."
The Flyers, who have just three seniors on their 12-player roster, figure to use as many as eight or nine
players this season. Lake also has six juniors and three sophomores.
"We have to do a good job of trusting our offense," Bowen said. "I give them a lot of
freedom, but there are still certain things we need to do.
"We’re going to be better defensively because we’ll have five guys on the court who will want to
play defense. We didn’t have that last year. We have to play good pressure defense and trust our offense
to get open shots."
LAKE BOYS SCHEDULE
Dec. 1 – at Toledo Christian
Dec. 7 – GENOA#
Dec. 8 – at Oak Harbor
Dec. 13 – at Elmwood#
Dec. 18 – ROSSFORD#
Dec. 21 – at Delta
Dec. 22 – WOODWARD
Dec. 28 – NORTHWOOD
Jan. 4 – at Otsego#
Jan. 5 – OLD FORT
Jan. 10 – WOODMORE#
Jan. 12 – at Swanton
Jan. 15 -at Fostoria#
Jan. 18 – EASTWOOD#
Jan. 24 – at Genoa#
Jan. 26 – at Woodward
Jan. 29 – ELMOOD#
Feb. 1 – at Rossford#
Feb. 7 – OTSEGO#
Feb. 12 – at Woodmore#
Feb. 15 – FOSTORIA#
Feb. 22 – at Eastwood#
#-Northern Buckeye Conference games