Correspondent photo / Lowell Spencer South Range’s Tristan Toy goes up for a layup during Friday’s game against Lakeview in Beaver Township.

BEAVER TOWNSHIP – The South Range boys basketball team doesn’t have the luxury of a big post player, but they make up for it with an up-tempo style of play, intense defense and a deep bench. That formula helped propel them to a resounding 70-49 victory over the Lakeview Bulldogs to keep the Raiders on top of the Northeast 8 Conference.

With the victory, the Raiders improved to 3-1 overall on the season and 3-0 in the NE8. The Raiders are off to a fast start despite having 16 players in the program who have only practiced for just a couple of weeks due to their long football playoff run.

“We had 16 guys on the football team that were not with us until the Wednesday after they lost (state semifinal). So, we went into the season with just six practices. We are trying to play an up-tempo style and it is obviously hard with the football legs. But our guys are just great athletes who work really hard,” Raiders head coach Pat Carden said.

The Raiders are willing to use some of their depth in the early stages of the season to keep players fresh.

“We have 15 guys on the bench, and we use all 15. Graham Heikkinen, Jack Carey and I have been here the longest and we just need to make sure that if we are going, that means that the football guys are trying to keep up. All the football guys just want to win,” Raiders senior guard Luke Rohan said.

The loss drops the Bulldogs to 3-4 on the year and 1-1 in the league. They have dropped back-to-back games in the past week after falling to LaBrae on Saturday.

“We watched their (South Range) first three games on film. They play that way. They play fast and they get out in transition. A shot goes up from us and they have two guys leaking down the floor. We told our guys about it and they knew it was coming,” Bulldogs head coach Stephen Procopio said.

Rohan had a quiet 21 points to take home the game-high scoring honors on the night. With him having an off night from behind the arc, he tallied 14 with layups and put backs and grabbed eight rebounds to help power the Raiders’ offensive output.

“It was that our coach was a little bit upset that we weren’t playing hard enough in the first half, and we were kind of playing lackadaisical, but in the second half we got out and pressured them and we got some easy layups,” Rohan described his scoring on the night. “That’s how you get points.

“We are a defensive team, and we want to be known as a defensive team. We are going to get up and pressure. We like to see other teams being uncomfortable.”

Graham Heikkinen added 17 points and six rebounds while playing the inside the post for the Raiders, and Gaven Nagy added 13 points. Both Heikkinen and Nagy knocked down three treys.

Following a back-and-forth game in the opening quarter, the Raiders held a slim 18-15 advantage before they began the second frame with a quick 8-2 run to jump out to a nine-point lead. The Raiders closed the half with a 7-2 run as Heikkinen added a put-back with 1:38 remaining and then Rohan connected on his second of two threes to stake the Raiders to a 40-28 advantage at the intermission.

“It fits our team and our style,” Carden described the Raider’s fast-paced style. “We have a lot of guys and a lot of athletes, so we try to use them to our advantage by getting them up and down the floor.”

The second half started with the Bulldogs making a run as they opened the period with an 8-1 run to cut the deficit down to five points when Isaiah Lantz connected on a three at the 5:52 mark of the frame. But the Raiders answered back with a 7-0 run, led by Nagy scoring on two consecutive trips down the court to make it 48-36 at the 4:12 mark of the third quarter. By the end of the third period, the Raiders had built a commanding 17-point, 57-40 advantage following a three by Heikkinen and a basket by Tristan Toy in the final two minutes of the stanza.

“It was a five-point game, and we had the ball,” Procopio said of the opening minutes of the second half. “A couple of silly mistakes against a team that good and it turns into points for the other team. Late in the game, we were pretty tired.”

The Raiders eventually built a game-high 24-point advantage with just a minute remaining following a bucket on a fast break by senior guard Nate Lewis. Leo Parise would add a three for the Bulldogs to reach the final 21-point margin.

The Bulldogs were led by senior forward Carter Doran, who scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Lantz added 11 while Trace Goyzueta chipped in with 10 to carry the Bulldogs offensively.

“We have a goal to be league champions,” Procopio said. “That (South Range) is probably the team that is favored to win the league this year. We have to learn from this. That is a really good basketball team, but so are we.”

The Bulldogs will return to action next Friday when they travel to Maplewood in a non-conference tilt. The Raiders will also take a week off and face a non-conference opponent when they travel to West Branch next Friday.