Back-to-back high-flying dunks by Naz Bohannon and Anfernee Smothers to start the game set the tone and excited the Lorain faithful for what would be an overwhelming victory as the Titans defeated the John Marshall Lawyers, 101-53, on Dec. 1
“It was amazing. everyone was out there, crowd was big, I was excited,” Smothers said.
Smothers was one of three players to score in double digits as he strung together a double-double with 26 points and 12 rebounds. Bohannon had a game-high 27 points and Jalil Little scored 18. Five other players were part of the scoring effort for the Titans.
“It’s our effort and our unselfishness. two things I think that set us apart from a lot of other teams out there,” Lorain coach John Rositano said. “They play very hard and very unselfish. And again, they’ve bought into a system that we’ve established over the past couple of years and when you do them two things and throw in talent, you throw in high character guys, you’ve got some pretty good basketball.
Lorain (1-0) had the magic touch in the first quarter to help expand its lead to 28-9 over John Marshall, courtesy of shooting 12 of 21 from the floor, including multiple buckets coming in the paint. Little propelled the Titans with 10 first-quarter points.
Lorain started the second quarter on a 14-4 run and led 42-13 with 3:45 left in the half courtesy of a Bohannon layup. The Titans led 51-25 at intermission
Lorain outscored John Marshall, 17-13, in the third quarter and outscored them, 33-15, in the fourth quarter to help eclipse the century mark. Daesean Brooks scored the layup with 28 seconds left in the game to ultimately give Lorain 101 points.
“We gave the fans what they wanted and to score 100 on opening night and play hard, everyone’s going to keep coming out and seeing us. It was fun,” Bohannon said. “When a guy like Daviere (Andrews) dunks, you know we’re just doing things,” he added with a laugh.
Lorain was not only offensively sound but played well defensively, forcing 30 John Marshall turnovers.
“Once we start playing more solid defensively, turnovers just happen,” Rositano said. “Most teams can’t play at the rate we play at and eventually we wear teams down and you saw that tonight, It was a wear-down effect. They (John Marshall) got sloppy with the ball … that’s the way we want to play, we want to speed teams up.”
Clinton Parker led John Marshall (0-1) with 16 points and was three-for-three on 3-pointers and Patrick McNeal chipped in with 12 and Andre Starks had 10. Out of 19 field goals made by the Lawyers, 10 were 3-pointers.
Lorain will face Vermilion in a nonconference game at Vermilion Dec. 4 with a tip-off slated for 7:30.
