The Lakeland men's team faced off against the St. Clair County Skippers today in the District C Championship at Mott Community College. This was not the Lakers day as they struggled at times offensively and ran into a buzzsaw Skippers team that could not miss from the arc. In the end, the Lakers fell by a final score of 91-66. The Lakers started out with a quick 6-1 lead. PJ Daniels stole the ball to start play and fed Ansoumane Oulare for the games first basket. After a Skipper turnover, Alex Benson scored to put the Lakers up 4-0. St. Clair would hit 1-2 free throws before Benson grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a layup for a 6-1 Laker advantage. The play for the Lakers turned from there as they missed some close range shots and free throws to allow the Skippers to tie the game at 9 with 14:25 to play in the half. Jareon Mayo would then hit a 3-pointer to put the Lakers up 12-9 before Lakeland would get whisteled for a technical. The Skippers sank both free throws and then scored a layup to take a momentum changing 13-12 lead. The Lakers would then turn the ball over and the Skippers took advantage by scoring a basket for a 15-12 lead. Lakeland would then be called for an offensive foul and the Skippers scored again. This trend continued for the next few minutes as the Skippers lead grew to 34-21. The Lakers needed one of their patented runs to get themselves back into the game. It started when Adam Williams sank a jump shot on a pass from PJ Daniels. Daniels was later fouled and sank 1-2 free throws to bring Lakeland within 10, 34-24, with 4:52 to play. The momentum was starting to swing and it looked Lakeland was going to be able to turn the game around. The teams then traded baskets a few times before Adam Williams got an offensive rebound and a layup to bring the Lakers within 8 at 39-31. On the Skippers next possession, Adam Williams stole the ball and was on a fast break when the Lakers were whistled for a bench technical. The Skippers hit both free throws and what should have been a 6 point game was now back to a 10 point deficit for the Lakers. The Lakers were undeterred though as PJ Daniels connected on a 3-pointer from Justin Covington to cut the deficit to 7 points. The Lakers went into the break trailing 41-34.
The second half was not kind to the Lakers. Lakeland missed some shots early on in the half and the Skippers would answer with 3-pointers. As a result, the Skipper lead grew quickly and the Lakers were never able to recover. Overall, the Lakers shot under 30% from the field (24-82) and 20% from the arc 6-30.
Eleven different players scored for the Lakeland with three players finishing in double digits. Jareon Mayo was the high scorer for Lakeland with 14 points and 5 rebounds. PJ Daniels finished his afternoon with 13 points and 5 rebounds while Ansoumane Oulare recorded 10 points and 8 boards. Brandon Lane scored 5 points and added 6 rebounds while Justin Covington recorded 4 points and 6 rebounds. Alex Benson, Bishop Thomas, and Adam Williams each finished with 4 points while Keenan Hughes and Ben Hamilton each picked up 3 points for the Lakers. Chris Tackett finished the game with 2 points and 7 rebounds.
Ansoumane Oulare and Jareon Mayo were named to the all-tournament team.
T's Thoughts: "Give credit to St. Clair as they came out and played hard and shot the ball well. Overall, we had a good season - it just didn't end the way we would have liked today."
