TONTOGANY — Lake girls basketball applied its patented full court pressure in the second half to win its Northern Buckeye Conference opener at Otsego, 40-36, Thursday.

The Flyers, trailing 16-10 at the half, outscored the Knights 30-20 in the second half, eventually tying the game on a three-point goal by sophomore forward Kaydence Eckenrode with three minutes remaining.

After trailing since early in the first quarter, Lake freshman guard Brooke Wiley was fouled after receiving an inbounds pass and trying to score in the paint, giving the Flyers a 37-35 lead with 2:05 on the clock and they never trailed again.

In a game that saw five players foul out and 45 turnovers, Lake guard Kyleigh Christ was one of few seniors who stayed on the floor and never backed down through a chaotic game.

Christ had five points, six rebounds, and two steals, but she knows how Lake basketball is played. It took that second half press to get her team in gear. Christ took it all in, knowing hard work pays off.

After the Flyers were only 4-for-19 from the field and 2-for-14 from the free throw line in the first half, Lake freshman forward Savannah Little scored two straight layups early in the third quarter off steals, one of them by Christ.

“It’s fun,” Christ said. “I think our defense helped at the end — it was our teamwork together. It helped a lot. We had a lot of turnovers at the beginning and quick layups.”

Lake coach Joe Nowak says he would have installed the pressure earlier, but from the start he was down two players — senior guard Sydney Stanley and sophomore guard Penelope Garcia.

“That is something that when we get to our full strength, we can look at possibly doing it a little bit more,” Nowak said. “It’s just with our limited roster, that is how it is.

“We’re still not playing games with our full roster. Even tonight we were shorthanded. Sydney wasn’t here — she has been out a couple days, and Penelope Garcia usually gets a couple minutes, too, and we were going to get her in the rotation tonight.”

Nowak said after a physical and fast-paced first half that led to only 26 combined points, he didn’t know whether to even ask his players to press or not.

“You look at how exhausted both teams were in the first half. It was such a physical and up-paced game that the girls were just busting their butts on both teams,” Nowak said.

“I wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to do it, but I asked them at halftime if they could give me a little bit more. They came out there and they did that.

“They switched up there and got it to a different pace and we got some buckets off of that. But I think it carried into the fourth quarter that we had that jolt of energy, we felt like we had the game in our grasp and we fought the whole way and we came through.”

Eckenrode led Lake with 16 points, including three second half triples, and two steals, Wiley had a double-double 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Little had nine points, four rebounds and three steals.

Then there were those Flyers who did not score — like junior forward Lauren Tobias getting six caroms and two steals, senior forward Maddi Miller grabbing five rebounds, and senior forward Elaina Longoria getting five steals.

Christ said it had to be a group effort.

“It was a lot,” Christ said. “We had two people who fouled out who were starters down the stretch so we all worked together the best we could.”

The Flyers ended up shooting 33% (14-for-42) from the field, but still only 32% (8-for-25) from the line. Lake had 22 turnovers to Otsego’s 23.

Nowak says he can see the improvement after Lake opened the season with consecutive losses to Northwest Ohio Athletic League teams Evergreen, 53-27, and Swanton, 37-28.

“We haven’t necessarily been playing the greatest in our first two games. We’re still trying to piece things together,” Nowak said.

“For the girls who played, we really gutted it out and each time we’ve gotten a little bit better, whether its from our first game, where we didn’t feel the greatest about it.

“We came in and worked a couple days and got better, and we made some improvements in our second game and this game, too, we made some improvements off those.

“I’m really happy for the girls because it doesn’t come easy and they really worked to earn this one,” Nowak continued.

Otsego sophomore guard Jocelyn Cornell led the Knights with 14 points, and even though she is listed at 4-feet-11, she had eight rebounds.

Junior Samantha Lehr had 11 points, eight rebounds and two steals, and junior Sophie Dimick had four points, nine rebounds and two steals.

Otsego junior Savannah Villarreal had three points and five boards, junior Morgan Hillesheim had two points and four rebounds, sophomore Cailyn Rider had one points and five rebounds, and freshman Ryleigh O’Brien had one point and two steals.

The biggest problem for the Knights was seeing Lehr foul out with 6:14 remaining, Rider was whistled for her fifth personal with 5:46 remaining, and Hillesheim got her fifth foul with 3:08 on the clock.

“It hurt us because we had a couple kids who have never been in that moment and you don’t know how they are going to handle it,” Otsego coach Eric Simon said. “They will learn from it and that is great. We were undermanned, but they lost a couple players, too.”

Otsego also had 24 more shots from the field, out-rebounding Lake 48-38, but made just 23% (15-for-66) and were just 6-for-14 (43%) from the line.

“We can lose to anybody or beat anybody,” Simon said. “Again, we had wide open shots, they just have to fall. We’ve got to get shots to fall.

“Then late in the game we had turnovers, but then again we had people playing out of place because we lose three starters. Sam, who I think is fantastic, we lost her really early, so we battled and we were still in at the very end,” Simon continued.

“It was all positive. We have to fix the mistakes and that is all part of just being a team. I can’t argue with the effort. The final score didn’t go our way but it could have. Joe’s kids played hard and the effort was tremendous.”

Like Lake, Otsego falls to 1-2 overall, coming off a disappointing 46-10 loss at Northwood on Tuesday.

“We came off a stinker against Northwood the other night,” Simon said. “They hit everything and we couldn’t hit anything, so it was one of those nights that snowballed. And, (Northwood coach) Andy (Dickey) has a good team and he’s a good coach, and they are physical.”