The men's basketball team traveled to Saginaw, MI on Saturday to take on the Delta College Pioneers. Lakeland was able to sweep the season series from the Pioneers this time coming away with a convincing 89-79 victory. The Lakers have now won 6 straight as their record improves to 8-4. Lakeland got off to a fast start in the game and led 10-6 early. Offensively they were really flying had a very balanced attack. A key to the first half was set up by the defense of Javonta Lyons. Lyons drew a momentum changing charge early in the half that got to the Pioneers. Many times the rest of the half as the Pioneers drove to the hoop they would pull up early and miss shots as the Lakers continued to play strong positional defense. An offensive highlight of the half was a thunderous dunk by Allen Sims on a pass from Jordan McMillian. The dunk gave the Lakers the lead at 17-15 and an energy boost that carried through the rest of the half. The Lakers went into the break with a 50-44 lead.

 

Lakeland came out with a lot of energy in the second half. From the onset, they appeared a bit quicker and were taking advantage of some excellent inside play. Lakeland was able to expand it's lead to 16 after a pair of Chris Richardson buckets. The Pioneers started to close the gap as Lakeland had a few turnovers while Delta started to make some transition baskets. However, Sims provided another spark - this time on defense.  After a Lakeland turnover, the Pioneers were going for a breakaway basket. Sims never gave up though and sprinted the length of the court to catch the Pioneer with a tremendous blocked shot. From there, Jonny Bowers and Richardson had some quality baskets to push the Lakers lead back to 10 points. From then on, whenever the Pioneers would score, they would foul Lakeland to try to catch up.  Lakeland thwarted that effort as they hit 8 consecutive free throws in a 2 minute stretch - including 4 in a row that put the finishing touches on the game from Tyreke Johnson.

 

Lakeland had 6 players score in double digits: Keith Germain (14), McMillian (13), Johnson (13), Richardson (13), Sims (12), and Bowers (11). The Lakers just missed a 7th player in double figures as Lyons finished with 9 points.

 

      Jonny Bowers - "First game we played the whole 40 minutes. We had a lot of energy and we kept pushing - didn't give them a chance to come up. We never gave up and now we are

      ready to play the 2nd ranked team n the country."

 

      Allen Sims - "We facilitated better. I feel we are a complete team and are ready to compete. Great team effort."

 

      Javonta Lyons - "When we play as a team it's much easier. When we play defense the way we are capable we are tough to score on." On drawing charges, "just do it for the team. We can

      get 2-3 more fouls that way a game".

 

      Tyreke Johnson - "Thought we played well as a team. We had good chemistry at the end." On the free throw shooting success, "everyone shoots between 50-100 after practice. We do it

      when we are tired and I really think that has helped us shoot well in some games (27 of 35 today)."

 

      Tyshaun Howard - "First half we really followed the game plan. We attacked their forwards and took advantage of their fouls. We played a good team game today, will need to get better tomorrow."

 

Bowe Bytes: "We played pretty well. We showed signs of improvement in terms of finishing games. We had a few plays we took off, but we were able to battle back. I think we won because we had great leadership. Tyreke did a nice job taking pressure off the point. We're excited for the challenge tomorrow of playing the #2 ranked team in the country."

 

Next up: The Lakers will play Schoolcraft College tomorrow at 1 pm at Delta College. On Thursday, December 19, the Lakers will play host to the St. Clair County Skippers at 7:30 pm. Admission is free.