Glen Lake boys basketball defeated Bellaire 65-49 behind a dominant offensive and defensive performance in the regional final Thursday, March 7.
The Lakers started on fire and held the lead from the first to the last whistle to capture its first regional title since 2018. Glen Lake started the game with streaky 3-point shooting from senior Cooper Bufalini and junior Michael Houtteman to capture early momentum in the sold-out Bellaire High School to go up 15-5.
“Our momentum kind of picked off and we kind of kept it rolling throughout the first quarter,” Houtteman said. “We’ve been going hard in practice. We’ve been kind of playing smarter. We’ve been doing a lot of shooting drills.”
At the end of the first quarter, Glen Lake junior Benji Allen threw down a ferocious fastbreak dunk that was the play of the game. The Lakers turned that into a quick 30-13 lead going into halftime and seemed the basket was six feet wide.
Bellaire would not quit as the Eagles cut into the Lakers lead to as little as 11 late in the third and early in the fourth quarter.
“Bradford gave us a great game plan coming into the game. It’s all about defense. We just gotta lock him down and the offense will follow,” Bufalini said. “We’re shooting well, but as that’s developing, we’re gonna have to also know when to stop shooting and push it down inside. Get it to Jacob, Ben, Dylan, whoever’s open down there and you know, just keep it rolling on defense as well.”
Glen Lake sophomore Jacob Plamondon caused size issues for the Eagles all night long as he led all scorers with 23 points, 13 rebounds. Allen added another 14 points, while Bufalini and Houtteman tallied eight points each. Gage Baker had two points and so did Tyler Bixby.
“We just keep on reading the floor and having confidence. They came out in the third quarter and came back on us,” Glen Lake coach Jason Bradford said. “Let’s make a statement right away. Coming out defensively. I don’t know what they had in the first quarter, five points, but that’s the biggest thing, you know, making a statement and they never gave up so hats off to them.”
Glen Lake’s run to Breslin came to an end in a quarterfinal game against Sacred Heart Academy (Mount Pleasant) 63-51 on Tuesday, March 12.
Glen Lake fell behind 14-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Irish would go on a quick 8-0 run to begin the second quarter behind streaky shooting to go up 22-9. Glen Lake would cut into the lead 29-22, but Sacred Heart had every answer to go up 11 points at the break 36-25. The Lakers would slowly chip away and cut the Irish lead to within three points with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Despite the pressure that was the closest the Lakers got as Sacred Heart ran out the time and hit their free throws. The Irish will face Allen Park Inter-City Baptist on Thursday.
The Lakers will graduate Bufalini, Gage Baker, Dylan Cundiff, Tyler Bixby and Jamie Blondia.
