Culver IN. Culver Academies took on the Blazers of La Lumiere in a varsity only contest on Friday night. Culver had won two straight coming into this game and are looking to get their largest win streak since late December. La Lumiere are coming off a shootout loss to Michigan City for their second loss of the season. It was a packed crowd in Fleet Gym and the arena was rocking throughout the game.
           
Fola Fayemi got his first start of the year against his former team as Senior Daley Stein was out with illness. After a pair of misses from both teams, the Blazers broke the deadlock with a bucket inside. Cooper Farrall got fouled and made one of two from the line before scoring on a put-back on their next possession off a missed three from Thomas Collins. He wouldn't miss the next one and drilled a shot from beyond the arc to put Culver up four early. La Lu responded with five points of their own, but Fayemi responded with a bucket inside. From there the two sides traded scores with La Lumiere getting a pair of scores in the paint with a Collins drive and score in between. Farrall hit a big three at the end of the quarter, but La Lu managed to get in the lane and score before the buzzer went off to keep the game tied at 13 at the end of the first-period.
           
Culver went on a big run to start the second and didn't look back. Farrall started with a nice high-low post score with the pass from Fayemi. Jokubas Skurdenis then scored a putback layup off a missed three from Andrew Macheca. Collins hit a big three to cap off the quick seven points off a Macheca pass. La Lumiere scored in the paint to get two points back, but a foul sent Skurdenis to the line where he hit one of two. Farrall and Fayemi connected in the post again, this time with Fayemi on the scoring end as Culver capped the 10-2 run. The Blazers got to the line and scored both, but Farrall responded with a big and-one conversion to get the lead to nine. La Lu hit a three, but not to be outdone, Farrall hit one of his own. Farrall got to the line to get the lead to the highest in the game to that point, making the difference 11. Skurdenis traded a pair of scores with La Lumiere, giving the Eagles four more points to end the half. La Lu hit another buzzer-beater, this time from three, to keep the lead to single digits at the end of the half with a score of 35-27.
           
La Lumiere started to gain some momentum early in the third with three straight threes, only broken up by a drive and score from Amir Gates. A pair of free throws and a score inside ended the Blazer's 13-2 run. Gates got to the bucket again to get two back for Culver and a pair of free-throws from Farrall regained the Culver lead. La Lu got a score late in the quarter, but this time it was Culver's turn to hit a shot before the Buzzer and Farrall hit a three to end the quarter with the maroon and white up two. The third was highlighted by defense as Culver had their lowest scoring quarter of the night. The third ended 44-42.
           
Culver finally put the game to rest in the fourth. Farrall opened with two and La Lu quickly answered with two of their own. Collins started his fourth-quarter three party in the next possession, and Macheca got a bucket off a drive to get the lead to seven. La Lu couldn't seem to get a shot to fall while Culver was able to get good looks to go in. Farrall made the first from the line and stole the ball away after he missed the second. The ball eventually found Collins for his second three of the quarter. Collins hit another three with the next possession to give Culver a lead of 14 midway through the fourth. La Lu scored from the line and started to show full court pressure. Culver beat the press with a clever in-bounds play and Farrall sent a football pass to Fayemi who electrified the crowd at the end of the game with a vicious two-handed slam. The fans got even louder as the JV subs Wade Seddelmeyer, Josh Okorafor, Luke Vincent, and Darius Holland all got in the game. Fayemi made a late free-throw and after a missed shot by La Lu, Darius Holland pushed the ball up the floor, found Vincent in the corner, and Vincent drilled the three to send the crowd into a frenzy as the buzzer went off.
           
Culver gets their biggest win of the season against a strong La Lumiere team, and gives them their third win in a row. Culver resumes action tomorrow against Maconaquah at 7:00pm.