By David Tomczak
Local Sports Journal 

The season just keeps getting better for SpringLake boys basketball.

Riding a 12-game winning streak, the Lakers have moved one win away from claiming a Class B district title, rolling in their second round game at Orchard View Wednesday, defeating the hosts, 51-33.

The win also improves their record to 20-2, the most wins in a single season for the program. They will look for win No. 21 Friday night at 7 p.m. in the title game against Whitehall. The Vikings advanced with a 50-48 win over Oakridge in the opener.

“The goal from the beginning of the year was a district title,” SpringLake coach Bill Core said. “And although this game was sloppy in the second half, we are playing real well right now.”

The Lakers came out looking to attack inside, but once Orchard View took that away, the long-range shooters took over.

SpringLake hit four 3-pointers, from four different players, in the first quarter and built a 18-6 lead to start the second. They added two more 3’s and went to the break up 29-14.

“They were in control most of the game,” OV coach Scott Warsaw said. “We shut (Austin Johnson) down and everyone else stepped up.”

Johnson, the Lakers leading scorer, hadn’t scored less than 16 points in any game this season, but was held to three by the Cardinals. But it didn’t matter.

Ten SpringLake players scored and the “other” Johnson, Erik, led the team with 13 points, including four in a third quarter in which the Cardinals only scored 3.

“A lot of guys got to play tonight,” Core said. “We are a pretty deep team and we were able to rest some guys.”

Keegan George added eight points for SpringLake, Nicholas Goeglein had nine rebounds and three blocks, Austin Johnson finished with seven rebounds and three assists, Adam Clauss had four assists and Kyle Zietlow dished out three.

Orchard View’s John Leonard scored 12 and had four blocked shots, Brandon Smith added 10 points, Brandon Edwards scored nine and Alec Sherwood finished with three assists.

SPRINGLAKE 51, ORCHARD VIEW 33
Spring Lake 18 11 11 11 – 51
Orchard View 6 8 3 18 – 33 

SPRING LAKE
Austin Johnson 1 1-2 3, Erik Johnson 4 4-4 13, Nicholas Goeglein 2 0-2 4, Adam Clauss 2 0-0 6, JP Batts 1 0-0 3, Charlie Warber 2 0-0 4, Kyle Zietlow 1 0-0 3, Keegan George 3 0-0 8, Jeff Marod 0 3-5 3, Henry McGannon 2 0-0 4. Totals 18 8-13 51. 

ORCHARD VIEW
John Leonard 4 3-4 12, Keith Melton 0 1-6 1, Brandon Edwards 3 0-0 9, Brandon Smith 5 0-1 10, SaRaun Render 1 1-3 3. Totals 13 5-14 33.

3-pointers – E. Johnson, Clauss (2), Batts, Zietlow, George (2), Leonard, Edwards (3). Total fouls – SpringLake 16, Orchard View 14.