Grzanna’s buzzer beater lifts Lakers

SUNAPEE – The Lakers boys improve to 7-2 after Wednesday night’s close victory over Derryfield, 47-45.

Brady Grzanna played the hero role on the night, coming up with a buzzer-beating floater in the lane to propel the Lakers to their seventh victory of the season.

Sunapee gained possession with 18 seconds remaining in the game, tied at 45.

“I called a timeout to set things up,” said Sunapee head coach Tim Puchtler. “They were in a 2-3 zone all game and I knew they’d come out in a man-to-man look on our final possession. I told the boys to run a set, and if we hadn’t found anything with around five seconds left on the clock, then we need to attack the basket at that point.”

And, that was the case. Grzanna started his attack with just under five seconds to play. He drove to the middle, lofted a runner, and after the ball hung around the rim, the shot went through.

“If I’m going to put the ball in someone’s hand in that situation, it’d be Grzanna,” said coach Puchtler. “He gave us some good offense. He was looking for his shot and that’s when we’re at our best.”

Grzanna’s final shot capped off a 21-point final quarter for the Lakers in their come-from-behind effort against a solid 5-3 opponent.

“The first quarter was tight, and then we came out in the second quarter and struggled,” said Puchtler. “We started to get out of sync a bit.”

Sunapee entered the final quarter down 38-26, but the Lakers started to mix up their defense, bringing more pressure, and held Derryfield to just 7 points in the fourth.

With the Lakers now at 7-2, coach Puchtler sees a lot of improvements in his team from last year.

“This year, we’ve found ways to win 50-50 games,” he said. “Last year, I’m not sure we win a game like this.”

For Sunapee, Zach Belisle had a team-high 19 points while Grzanna added 17 and Jordan Chappel added 7.

Derryfield was paced by 19 points from Max Byron.

The Lakers will host Nute on Friday night.