There was plenty to be excited about when the Lake Clifton boys basketball team visited Mervo last night. The game featured two top 10 city teams playing in front of a packed gym.
But if city supremacy wasn't enough, there was another element to consider. Lake Clifton's top guard, Antoine Allen, attended Mervo before transferring two years ago.
"People take it personal because I used to go here," Allen said. "It's not. To us, it was just a regular game. We just wanted to play together and come out to win."
No. 2 Lake Clifton had no problem doing that, routing No. 9 Mervo, 70-38. The win was the Lakers' 16th in a row, the longest current winning streak in the metro area.
"We know people are working harder to beat us, so we're going to work even harder and not let up," said Allen, who scored a game-high 26 points. "We're going to keep going at it and come to practice every day hungry."
The Lakers (19-1) blew the game open in the second quarter. Up 14-9, they started the quarter on an 11-0 run. Derrious Gilmore (13 points, six assists) couldn't be contained in transition as he drove and kicked to Jason Sharp Jr. (five points, six rebounds, six assists) for an open three-point shot to get the run started. On the next play, Gilmore hit a deep three.
Lake Clifton also turned up the intensity on defense, with its man-to-man causing Mervo (14-5) to turn the ball over, rush shots or take bad ones. Allen bottled up Byron Westmoreland, holding him to 13 points on 3-for-14 shooting.
"Our focus all season has been on defense as a group," Lakers coach Herman Harried said. "They like to do a lot of movement and get you confused. Our focus was just to stay on your man, try to help, but don't turn your back, and they just played tight defense as a group."
With 1:30 left in the second quarter, Gilmore tossed the ball to Allen from the three-point line for a thunderous alley-oop dunk that brought fans of both teams to their feet. Lake Clifton had a 20-point lead by halftime, and the game would never get much closer.
The Lakers received a strong performance from 6-foot-8 center Cleveland Melvin, who had 15 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks and made it difficult anytime a Mervo guard tried to drive in the paint.
"I think the reason we're winning the way we're winning, we've got guys that are doing the dirty things just so the team can win," Harried said. "[Melvin's] been doing that all season long: rebounding, blocking shots and putting the ball back in."
stefen.lovelace@baltsun.com