HOWLAND – If there’s one thing this game surely lacked, it was suspense.

The Penobscot Valley boys basketball team left no doubt who would be leaving Sereyko Memorial Gymnasium with their first win of the season Tuesday night after racing out to a 20-2 lead over Greenville.

It didn’t get much better for the visiting Lakers as the Howlers used a relentless rebounding effort and stifling brand of man-to-man defense to batter the Lakers 93-31.

“Offensively, anybody can beat us, so we’ve got to step up on defense and then let the offense create itself,” said Penobscot Valley coach Tom Whitney, whose team evened its record at 1-1.

Lakers coach John Jardine might have grounds to lodge a complaint with the American Civil Liberties Union after his team was taught a hard lesson in creationism by the Howlers’ offense.

The Howlers were almost unstoppable in the paint with 53 total rebounds, 30 of which were offensive. Nine of the 10 players to get in had at least two boards and the Howlers’ second unit actually outrebounded the starters 32-21.

Greenville, now 0-2, managed a total of 32 boards (14 offensive).

“We haven’t rebounded well to this point so yeah, that was the focal point for us tonight. The only way you learn is to just keep trying and going after it,” said Whitney.

Howlers center Teddy Kajkowski and forward Nathan Cyr certainly went after it, to the tune of a combined 33 points – 21 of which came in the paint – and 15 rebounds, 11 of which were offensive.

“We’ve got a fairly small team and we just couldn’t match up. They’ve got a pretty powerful frontcourt,” said Jardine, who explained he is having to start from scratch this season after four key returning players – three of whom were starters – opted not to go out for basketball this year.

The 6-foot-6 Kajkowski had 16 points, eight boards, and three blocked shots. Cyr had 17 points and seven rebounds. The frontcourt duo makes up two-thirds of PVHS’s nucleus of returning veterans. Senior guard Lucas McCannell is the other member.

While PVHS’s big men were doing the job inside, the Howlers’ defense was contesting every lob pass and harassing the Greenville guards. Tcontesting every lob pass and harassing the Greenville guards. The pressure helped produce 19 Greenville turnovers – 12 in the first half.

“I didn’t really expect that much pressure on our guards up front. I thought they might play more zone,” said Jardine. “We’re not used to that kind of pressure out front.”

It showed early on as eight first-quarter turnovers helped PVHS reel off 15 unanswered points and build a 27-5 lead, which ballooned to 53-17 at the half.

On top of that, the Lakers had to contend with the loss of a key starter, forward Jacob Walden, to early foul trouble. Walden picked up a technical foul for slamming the ball in frustration early in the first quarter and was whistled for his fourth foul 33 seconds into the second quarter.

Walden managed to finish the game without fouling out after re-entering in the third quarter, but Greenville’s standout player was Tom Deming. The junior center led the Lakers with 11 points plus a game-high 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Forward Robby Coyle led the Howlers with a game-high 23 points off the bench along with eight rebounds. Also excelling off the bench was 5-11 freshman forward Scott Bates, who scored 11 points and pulled down 11 rebounds.

Howlers 93, Lakers 31

Greenville (0-2) Penobscot Valley (1-1)

Name G AG F AF TP Name G AG F AF TP

Hanson 0 3 0 0 0 Kajkowski 6 12 4 4 16

Morrill 2 12 2 2 6 Pelkey 2 7 0 0 5

Raposa 0 0 0 1 0 McCannell 3 5 0 0 8

Deming 4 15 3 4 11 Smith 2 4 0 0 4

Nile 0 0 0 0 0 Cloukey 0 4 0 0 0

Diemer 0 3 0 2 0 Hallett 2 7 1 2 5

Breton 0 1 0 0 0 Coyle 9 18 2 3 23

Walden 2 8 3 8 7 Archer 2 7 0 0 4

Driscoll 1 3 2 3 4 Cyr 8 12 1 2 17

Narbus 0 3 0 0 0 Bates 4 9 3 5 11

Lavigne 1 5 1 2 3

Totals 10 53 11 22 31 Totals 38 85 11 16 93

Greenville 5 17 27 31

Penobscot Valley 27 53 73 93

3-pt. goals:

Greenville (0-7): Demming 0-2, Narbus 0-2, Morrill 0-3; Penobscot Valley (6-10): Coyle 3-4, McCannell 2-2, Pelkey 1-3, Cyr 0-1

Attendance: 100