By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

A slow pace offensively turned into a slow start overall — and a 16-7 deficit after one quarter — for Waterloo on Tuesday at Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference rival Lowellville.

“We kind of were working the ball down the floor,” head coach Gavin English said.

The Vikings opened things up in the second quarter, pushing the ball up and down the floor.

By halftime, they forged ahead 28-23, upped the lead to 50-37 after three quarters and wound up winning 64-47.

Leading the charge were sophomore point guard Trevor Flarida, senior small forward Isaac Hall and junior shooting guard Mason Biltz.

Flarida scored 17 points, including 7-of-9 from the free-throw line; Hall scored 15 points, including 3-of-4 at the stripe; and Biltz had 12 points.

“Trevor was great. He really handled Lowellville’s pressure and attacked the basket extremely well,” said English. “For being only a sophomore, he’s really mature out on the floor. He makes sure we have guys in the right positions at all times. He really commanded the floor for us.

“Isaac went on a little run in the third quarter where he scored three straight times, forcing Lowellville to use one of their timeouts. He was just really physical on the offensive end of the floor. Defensively, he was great too. He guarded 1 through 5. He pressured the basketball and had a few steals.

“Mason is our other primary ball-handler. Between him and Trevor, they took care of the ball extremely well. In the first quarter, we were turning the ball over quite a bit, but then both of those guys really settled us down a lot. Mason attacked the rack strong, he rebounded extremely well for being one of our smaller guards. And when he got to the basket, he was finishing. He’s a great utility guy, making all five guys on the floor better.”

Four nights earlier, on Nov. 28 at home in the season opener, Waterloo fell 66-33 to Chippewa. After a rough start, a 3-point shot by Flarida at the halftime buzzer pulled the Vikings within 11 points at 25-14. They cut the lead to eight midway through the third quarter on a 3-pointer by junior power forward Jayden Martin, who wound up with 13 points.

“Chippewa called a timeout and responded pretty well. We just didn’t respond to them,” said English. “The next thing you know, you look up and we were down big. We lost some focus and it just went downhill quickly.”