CORTLAND - Through the first half of its game Monday night at Lakeview, Warren G. Harding was in good position to give Frank Caputo his first victory as a head coach after spending the prior four seasons as an assistant to P.J. Notar.
The Raiders outscored the Bulldogs 19-6 in the period and led 25-22 after 16 minutes of play, but Harding completely fell apart in the second half as Lakeview forced a total of 40 turnovers in a 60-33 rout.
"We told our girls, 'Take care of the ball a little better,' " Lakeview coach Adam Lewis said. "I think we had 18 turnovers in the first half, which is just unbelievable. Harding's got really good size. We were really focused on boxing out, getting after it a little more in the second half."
After trailing 16-6 through the first quarter, Harding (0-1) went on a 12-0 run to seize the advantage. Chelsea Dipaolo scored all seven of her points in the second, as she hit a 3-pointer and added another basket to give the Raiders a 25-18 lead, their largest of the game.
"Second quarter we came out focused and ready to play some basketball," Caputo said. "They saw some success early, built off the success, and stuck with it and kept playing hard."
It would be all downhill from there, as Lakeview (1-1) outscored Harding 42-8 the rest of the game.
Allie Pavlik led the second-half charge for the Bulldogs, scoring 16 of her game-high 22 points in the final two quarters, including 13 in the fourth. She was a layup machine in the final quarter, as all six of her field goals came on layups, with the majority of them coming off turnovers.
"We were struggling in the first half to get a few points, and it was a little scary, but we really pulled through in the fourth," she said. "It was a big game for us and we really needed it to pump ourselves up.
"Each of those points in the fourth quarter was all from my teammates. None of those points were on my own basis. They worked to get the steal, they threw the ball down to me and I just finished it for them."
Lewis said he was pleased with Pavlik's play, but he's not looking for her to reach the heights of Ali Gagne, who graduated after last season as the school's all-time leading scorer.
"Allie's going to get her points," Lewis said. "She's a really diverse player. She goes 100 miles an hour. She just really gets after it.
"I think we're more balanced this year as far as one girl sticking out. I will say, Allie Pavlik is playing the same position as Ali Gagne, and we'll leave it at that."
Lakeview steadily pulled away in the third quarter, turning a 25-22 deficit into a 37-28 lead. Pavlik hit a 3 for a 33-27 advantage and Rachel Calvin made a pair of free throws to end the scoring in the third.
Moesha Parks led Harding with eight points and Rai'Ale Chatmon and Dipaolo each had seven. Besides Pavlik's 22, Calvin added 10 for Lakeview.
After a tough road loss in the first game of the season at Geneva, Lewis said his team did a much better job Monday night of imposing its will on the opposition.
"Geneva's a great club. I thought we played well at Geneva," he said. "We really talked about boxing out and taking care of the ball. We wanted to play our style of basketball. We wanted to go up and down as much as possible."
