BOARDMAN — The Boardman Spartans hadn’t played a game in a week after their a mathcup against the Farrell Steelers was postponed.

Even though their first game came seven days ago, when they overcame a 22-point deficit to Canton GlenOak, that momentum carried over to their home opener against the Lakeview Bulldogs.

The Spartans scored the first 26 points of the game to come away with a 76-42 victory Tuesday night.

“We just tried to roll with the momentum of the last game,” Boardman power forward Ethan Anderson said. “We came out looking to get better. We just took care of business.”

Anderson finished with 14 points to compliment the other Anderson on the Spartans, Derrick, who led Boardman (2-0) with 17 points

“We challenged our guys after that game to be more focused when starting the game,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “We looked like we were intimidated and had those first-game jitters against GlenOak. They were a really good team, so when you don’t play your best, they exposed us early.

“We regrouped and chipped away and had a great win on the road. That definitely settled us down. This group has a lot of expectations. Tonight they had the right approach to start the game.”

The Spartans shot 50 percent from the floor with an inside and outside presence with four 3s and shots down in the paint. They also forced Lakeview into 19 turnovers.

“We just wanted to share the ball and play off of each other,” Anderson said. “We wanted to lock down on defense. We wanted to keeping rolling. We were rolling. The shots kept falling, so we kept shooting.”

The defense limited the Bulldogs (2-2) to just six field goal attempts as Lakeview’s first points didn’t come until the final 2 minutes of the first quarter. Ryan Carnahan led the Bulldogs with 20 points.

“You can’t draw it out better than that,” Birch said. “I think our pressure sped Lakeview up a little bit. On the other end, we were fortunate to get some easy ones because they know our stuff better than anyone. Fitch is down there and he knows our plays better than our guys do.

“So, when you get into half court with Lakeview, you really have to execute on both ends of the floor. They run really good stuff as well. I love watching his teams play. We were obviously trying to get them out of that game tonight.”

After that first quarter ended with the Spartans leading 26-4, Lakeview pretty much scratched whatever game plan they had but were able to play Boardman tighter throughout the rest of the game. By that time, the damage was already done.

Boardman held a 41-15 advantage at the half and a 59-24 lead after three quarters.

“They’re really good,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said. “They’ve got eight or nine seniors back off a team that battled Green last year in regionals. They pressured us. The pressure we saw tonight is impossible to simulate in practice. I told our guys at halftime, if we could simulate it at practice, we’d be playing more guys. They’re talented. Derrick is one heck of a player. He’s smooth on the court. He controls the game, the tempo. We knew we were in for a pretty good battle tonight.”

Derrick led the Spartans with six assists as he jump-started Boardman and kept the game flowing at the Spartans’ pace with the game seemingly in control.

“I wanted to dish the ball and get my teammates going,” Anderson said. “That’s what makes me happy, getting everyone involved.”

Birch pointed out what Derrick means to Boardman going forward.

“Everyone is aware of who Derrick is at this point,” He said. “He’s able to finish all over the floor. He’s really difficult to guard and keep in front. Ethan is someone we’re expecting big things from. He hasn’t scored as well as I think he wants to, but his presence inside is huge for us.”