By: Jonathan Szczepaniak | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published February 17, 2023
ST CLAIR SHORES — It was bad enough that St. Clair Shores Lakeview boys basketball lost in their first game in districts last season, but a loss at the hands of city rival St. Clair Shores Lake Shore made it even more painful.
Lakeview (13-5) was swept by both Lake Shore and St. Clair Shores South Lake last season, but entered this year looking for a little retribution.
Earning seven straight wins to open the 2023 campaign, including wins over South Lake and Lake Shore, Lakeview has returned as one of the strongest teams in the Macomb Area Conference.
“It was a pleasant surprise,” Lakeview coach John Carr said. “We were fortunate to start off with a lot of home games, and I think that really helps in high school basketball.”
Since their win streak was snapped, Lakeview has gone 6-4 with losses to Macomb Area Conference Silver champion Port Huron, and MAC White’s Grosse Pointe North.
There hasn’t been a cause for concern due to the fact that Lakeview hasn’t dropped back-to-back games this whole season, and in the end, it’s easy to bet on Lakeview’s crew of seven seniors to put the team back on track.
Carr said each senior on the squad has been able to carve out his own leadership quality.
“(Matthew) Ritter has been on varsity since he was a sophomore, so he was able to learn from the previous leaders who did a good job. He’s stepped into that role and been that guy. Tyler Griffin is a very good leader as well. He’s our hype guy; he gets the guys fired up. Keegan Tackett is another senior captain, and he’s just an all-around great kid.”
Led by senior guard Matthew Ritter, Lakeview’s leading scorer this season, Lakeview averages the sixth-highest points per game in the MAC.
Along with Ritter, senior guard Tyler Griffin, senior forward/center Charrone Gordon, junior forward/center Xavier Hassan, junior guard Bryce Ong and junior guard Keonte Woolf have led the Lakeview offense this season. Senior forwards Keegan Tackett and Easton Demeulenaere have also been reliable leaders for Lakeview.
The talent has always been there for Lakeview with a mix of perimeter threats and a tough inside presence, but Ritter said the team’s improvement has been on the mental side.
“I feel like just the competitiveness in our team; we want it more this year,” Ritter said. “I feel like we’re all coming together as a whole and playing really good basketball.”
Defensively, Lakeview has taken impressive strides this year since allowing 55 points per game in 2022.
Allowing only 50 points per game this season and holding teams under 50 in half their games, Lakeview’s press has become one of its best offensive weapons.
Woolf, who was brought up from junior varsity in the middle of last season, said Lakeview’s press has become an integral part of the team’s defensive efforts.
“Our defense is what creates our points because our fast breaks are mostly off of turnovers or steals or fast-break rebounds. Our press is the pride of our defense,” Woolf said.
While priding themselves on defense, Lakeview also takes a significant amount of pride in its community.
For five weeks on Saturday mornings, kids kindergarten through fifth grade get to spend some time with the big kids for a couple hours in the “Little Huskies” program.
About 90-100 kids head to Lakeview High School to run drills with the high schoolers, learn fundamentals and even scrimmage against each other.
It’s a community-based program that has been carried throughout the school for decades, but it plays a huge impact on not just the kids.
“It’s great,” Ritter said. “The kids love it, and they love hanging out with the big kids, I guess. They’re always talking about it at school, which is what I hear from parents all the time, so it’s really cool just helping out.”
Lakeview will look to secure its first district title since 1991 this season, but will have to get through the MAC Bronze/Silver Tournament first.
Already securing one of their goals this season, Lakeview still has some unfinished business this season.
“We won the city championship; that’s a big deal playing in St. Clair Shores,” Carr said. “A lot of the kids grew up playing with Lake Shore kids. We wanted to win the league, but we came up a little short. We got the MAC tournament coming up, so hopefully we’ll make some noise in that, and then it’s just winning a district title. We have the same four goals every year.”