Welcome to Lakeland Coach Mike Hunter! Coach Hunter and the Lakeland Lakers (1-0) earned their first victory of the season as they played host to the Erie Community College Kats. Lakeland last played in the 2019-20 season when they qualified for Nationals only to have the NJCAA tourney and the 2020-21 season cancelled due to COVID. At that time, Coach Hunter was an assistant coach under former coach, Terry Bowe. Coach Hunter took over the head coaching reigns this season and the Lakers earned a hard fought 78-69 victory over the Kats in their opening game. The game started off well for Lakeland and they led by as many as 14 at the half. The Lakers looked like they could cruise to victory before ECC came out with a vengence in the second half. The Kats put a full court press on and Lakeland had difficulty adjusting to the tempo and the rotations of ECC. Erie had cut the lead to 62-57 before a thunderous dunk from Chaze Harris (Bedford HS) gave Lakeland a 64-57 lead with 6:45 remaining. After a Kats basket, Harris hit 1 of 2 free throws to push the lead back to 6 at 65-59. Erie would then hit a basket and a three pointer to make it 65-64 with 3:25 to play. After the 3 pointer, the Kats were called for a tech and Harris calmly hit the free throw to make it 66-64. On the ensuing play, Harris was again fouled and hit another free throw. Later, ECC drove the lane and Kyle Jackson (Madison Comprehensive) blocked the shot. Harris was again fouled and this time he hit both free throws for a 69-64 lead. After an ECC bucket, Harris was fouled again underneath the baslket and once again hit both free throws to put the lead back at 5 with 2:14 to play. In ECC's next posession, Noah Berry (The Wellington School) stepped up big as he blocked two consecutive shots. The teams then traded free throws before Lakeland's Chaze Harris hit a big layup to put the Lakers up 74-67 with 34 seconds to play. Erie next came down and missed a shot with Jaidon Lipscomb (Pickerington HS) collecting the rebound. He was fouled and calmly hit both free throws to expand the Lakers lead to 76-67 with 17 seconds to play. Erie would then score an uncontested lay-up before Datrey Long (Beechcroft HS) calmly nailed two free throws to finish out the game.
Chaze Harris fininshed with a game high 26 points while Jaidon Lipscomb added 15 points. Datrey Long scored 14 points while Kyle Jackson chipped in 9 points for the Lakers.
Hunter's Highlights: "ECC is a very tough team. They are a traditional power and they always play hard - they are well coached. One of our goals tonight was to maintain the intensity for 40 minutes. We did well, but still have a lot of room for improvement. We were pretty good in transition and were able to score off of that. We have to get in better shape and so we will work on that. Chaze (Harris) did a real nice job as a freshman. We need to keep working to improve."
Next Up: The Lakers travel to Western Reserve Academy on Saturday (11/6). Tip off is scheduled for 6pm.
