WINONA LAKE — Lakeland Christian head coach Allison Kaufman doesn’t care who her Lady Cougars are playing or what the scoreboard says — she wants her players to give their all each and every minute.

LCA’s girls certainly kept their feet on the gas against visiting South Bend Community Baptist Tuesday night. The Cougars led from Anna Reimink’s assist of a Hope Fancil lay-in just six seconds into the game to Reimink’s steal for a fast break lay-up just ahead of the final buzzer, and the result was a lopsided, 56-17, victory over the Trailblazers Tuesday night.

“No matter who we’re playing, no matter what the scoreboard says we want to work hard all the time — 100 percent every game, from tip-off to the final buzzer. That’s all I ask of my girls is to give 100 percent no matter who we’re playing, if we’re down 50, if we’re up 50.” said Kaufman.

Lakeland (4-2) led by double digits with Jordan Gross’ putback at the 3:04 stop of the first frame. A 10-0 start to the second quarter helped push the Cougars out to a 20-point lead less than two minutes into the period, and that cushion ballooned all the way out to 30 points with Torie Calizo’s defensive rebound and full court assist of a transition layup by Fancil with roughly 20 seconds remaining in the half.

LCA’s press flustered Community Baptist (0-2) into 20 turnovers in the first half alone, which the Cougars were happy to convert into 11 points off turnovers. The home team pulled out of its full court pressure in the second half but still harassed the Trailblazers into another 11 turnovers for nine more points after the break.

Much of LCA’s pressure came from guards Reimink and Fancil, who finished with eight and seven steals, respectively.

“One of our goals before the game was to cause some chaos out there, and definitely with our length up top with our guards it’s definitely easy to do,” explained Kaufman. “We definitely come out every game trying to put pressure up at the top and trying to cause a little chaos for the guards.”

The hosts also enjoyed a dominant, 53-33 rebounding advantage at the game, paced by 12 caroms apiece from Calizo and Gross. Calizo scored eight second chance points, and Gross finished with four on their way to 15 and 10 points, respectively. Fancil scored a game-high 16 points, meanwhile, to lead a Lakeland scoring column that featured eight different players.

“We are definitely blessed this year. We’ve got threats, and it can be someone different every game,” Kaufman said. “Brady did a great job tonight crashing the offensive rebounds and collecting those points inside. She had a nice touch on her shot as well. We’re thankful that we can look to quite a few different people to score this year.”

Alayna Clifton scored eight points to pace Community Baptist, and Aubrey Secor finished with six. Emily Smithberger pulled down nine rebounds for the Trailblazers.

With Tuesday’s win, LCA bounced back from a 41-22 loss at North Miami last Tuesday, the team’s second in three games following a season-first defeat by a narrow 33-31 margin at Lakewood Park the previous Saturday.
The Cougars are hoping to use the big win as a springboard into back-to-back games at Culver Community and Hamilton to finish out the week Friday and Saturday.

“After last Tuesday we were pretty down, but tonight gave us some confidence back,” said Kaufman.