The 2003-04 boys basketball season has started, and OregonPreps.com is at the game! On opening night, two potential playoff teams in Canby and Lake Oswego battled it out in the opener for both teams. Canby was a little short-handed without some of their football players and gave an all-out effort, but in the end it was a little shooting and a lot of Love that helped the Lakers pull out a 63-51 win.

As you might expect from the first game of the season, the play was ragged at the start. As both teams started getting into rhythm, Lake Oswego started hitting their stride a little as sophomore forward Daniel Brady found cutters to the basket for easy layups. The Lakers pulled out to a 19-12 lead after the first quarter. But Canby, behind some good three-point shooting from sophomore point guard J.C. Cook and junior guard David Fife, crept back into the ballgame. At the half, they had shaved off four points off the lead and only trailed, 32-29.

In the second half, Canby continued to press and on a fast break basket by sophomore post Shane Stewart off a pass from Fife, the Cougars pulled ahead, 35-34 with 5:35 left in the third. The Cougars would run off four more points to complete a 10-2 run and Canby held a 39-34 lead. But Lake Oswego responded with their own run. Senior swingman Hannes Gehring found his stride in the second half, and his three-point bucket completed a 13-0 run and gave Lake Oswego a 47-39 lead.

"That was a huge key for us the way Hannes played," said Lake Oswego head coach Mark Shoff. "This summer he was our number two guy and he can score and really put a lot of pressure on the defense because he's so physical."

Canby wasn't done in the fourth quarter however, and had one final push left in them. Fife immediately responded with a three, and the Cougars chipped away at the Lakers lead. And with 3:46 left in the game, Fife stole the ball and went in for a layup to cut the lead to 53-51. Unfortunately, that was Canby's last gasp. Lakers senior guard Mark Reeves hit a big three-pointer, and Lake Oswego ran off ten straight points to finish off the game, which was punctuated by a fast break slam by freshman Kevin Love. Final score: 63-51 Lake Oswego.

"Mark Reeves was the guy that showed he was a senior, because Canby was ready to break it I thought," said Shoff. "We were up three-to-five and next thing you know we were down by five. He came in and hit a three and got a steal and a layup and got fouled."

Obviously, the big story of the day was the high school debut of Lake Oswego's Kevin Love. The 6-foot-8, 240-pound freshman finished the game strong, but was naturally a little nervous, as you might expect from a 15-year old kid.

"When I came out at first, there were a lot of jitters," said Love. "It's my first high school game and a lot of people came out to watch. I came out slow and missed a few passes. But after I scored that first basket, it was good."

And good it was - Love had game highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds, while also blocking a pair of shots and dishing out two assists. He was simply a load to handle down low.

"The Love kid was hard to stop," said Canby head coach Dane Walker. "In fact, I don't think you can stop him, you have to limit the amount of damage that he does. And they do a good job; they know who their go-to guy is and they get it to him."

But Canby, a little short-handed because of the absence of some key players because of the transition from football - most notably guard Brett Allee - gave a good effort. The Cougars got good performances from Cook and Fife, who led the way with 14 points. In truth, Canby had their chances but in the end they just happened to fall a little short.

"We were exhausted in the second half," said Walker. "We played only 5-6 guys and while we had our opportunities, we just ran out of gas."

Meanwhile, Shoff certainly appreciated the win, but knows that there is stuff for the team to work on.

"It was a first game and it showed our youth a little bit," said Shoff. "We were missing a lot on all cylinders. They did a good job on slowing Kevin down in the second half and double-teaming him, but when we see that stuff we have got to move the ball and get it to other shooters. But as the season goes on we'll get better and other guys will get involved. And as that happens, Kevin is going to be a lot looser to do damage."

Lake Oswego's next test will be against PIL title favorite Lincoln on Friday.

"We have Lincoln and then we have Benson," said Shoff. "As I told our guys, it only gets tougher. I just want to see our team getting better. Wins and losses will take care of themselves, but we've got to get better as a team. We've got to get a lot better in two days before we play (Lincoln)."

Canby (51) - Casey Reed 2-5 0-0 5-8 9, J.C. Cook 5-10 2-3 2-2 14, David Fife 5-11 2-7 2-3 14, Shane Stewart 2-10 1-1 6-6 11, Garon Nemyre 1-4 1-4 0-0 3, Joe Seifert 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Chris Burke 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Brandon Porter 0-1 0-1 0-0 0. TEAM 15-41 6-15 15-19 51.

Lake Oswego (63) - Kevin Love 8-10 0-0 5-7 21, Ryan Hilliard 3-5 0-1 0-1 6, Daniel Brady 3-6 1-1 1-2 9, Hannes Gehring 3-7 1-3 2-2 9, Bill Slade 1-2 0-1 1-2 3, Mark Reeves 5-6 3-3 3-4 16, Nick Lomax 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Ernie Spada 0-0 0-0 0-0 0, Kevin Davey 0-0 0-0 0-0 0. TEAM 23-36 5-9 12-18 63.

Rebound Leaders: Canby (Stewart 4), Lake Oswego (Love 14).

Assist Leaders: Canby (Fife 3), Lake Oswego (Brady 6)

Canby actually opened the game in a straight man-to-man, which surprised some of the folks on hand. However, they did eventually shift into a sagging zone to better defend Love... Canby as a whole is an athletic group who will be awfully tough to play with in the Pac-9... Canby point guard J.C. Cook played a solid game. He was one of the few Cougars that wasn't afraid to take the ball inside... David Fife showed a nice smooth jumper... LO's Ryan Hilliard and Hannes Gehring were a little slow out of the gate, but seemed to find their legs in the second half, especially Gehring... LO freshman point guard Ernie Spada played some solid minutes, showing good ball control and overall heady play... While there was a healthy crowd at Lake Oswego High School, it wasn't a full house. No doubt this will change as the season progresses and people get wind of Kevin Love and the Lakers... There were several notables in attendance, including several coaches from the United Salad program (Trent Gay, Ernie Spada), Lincoln head coach Jeff Bair, Jesuit guard Jordan Mast, as well as Lakeridge head coach Dave Nuss and several of his players (Jimmy Smith, Jarrell Smith, Kenneth Rice, and Vince Thomas)... The chant likely to be heard all year long from Lake Oswego's student section apparently will be "He's a Freshman!"... Look for an Oregonian feature on Kevin Love in the near future.