The Lakers men's basketball team played host to the Lorain County Commodores and swept the season series with an 81-69 victory. With the win, the Lakers improve to 12-3 on the season and 5-0 in conference play. The first half was marked by a series of small runs by each team. The Lakers would consistently jump out to 6-10 point leads and then the Commodores would go on runs to bring the lead back to within a point or two. Lakeland jumped out to an early 21-11 lead before Lorain county would counter to cut the lead to 21-18.  The Lakers took advantage of some Lorain missed shots to push the lead back to 7 at 26-19 and then the Commodores battled back and even took the lead at 31-30 with 3:50 to play in the half.  With the score knotted at 32, Elhadji Thiam would connect on two free throws to give the Lakers a 34-32 lead. The Lakers would then force a Lorain turnover and Landon Tillman would hit Thiam with a lob pass that led to an old-fashioned 3 point play (layup and free throw) for the Lakers. After Lorain sank two free throws, Tillman would hit Jaidon Lipscomb in the corner for a 3 pointer and a 40-34 Laker edge going into the break.

Th second half had a similar feel as both teams continued to battle. Again, both teams would go on mini-runs for the first 10 minutes. Finally, with the score 59-58 in favor of Lakeland, the Lakers would go on a final run which would allow them to close out the game. It started when Jaidon Lipscomb connected on a 5-foot jump shot to give the Lakers a 61-58 lead.  After a LCCC miss, Landon Tillman would hit Lipscomb for a layup and a 63-58 advantage. Later, with the Lakers clinging to a 64-61 lead, Lipscomb would be fouled and sink both of his free throws. After a Commodore missed shot, Dondi Harper II would get fouled on a rebound and connect on both of his free throws to push the Laker lead to 68-61. The Lakers would then shift to a zone defense which seemed to confuse Lorain County. After a turnover by the Commodores, Tillman would sink a 12-foot shot to grow th Laker lead to 70-62. Tillman would then be fouled on 4 consecutive Laker possessions and sink 7 of 8 free throws to give the Lakers a 77-67 lead with 48 seconds to play.  In Lorain County's next possession, they committed another turnover which lead to a dunk by Lipscomb on an assist from Tillman.  The Lakers completed the game as Dondi Harper sank to more free throws to give the Lakers the final advantage at 81-69.   

The key to tonights game was the Lakers team free throw shooting. Lakeland combined to shoot just over 94% from the line as they were a blistering 32-34. Jaidon Lipscomb led the way with 29 points while Landon Tillman finished with 21 points for the Lakers. Elhadji Thiam picked up 16 points in the Laker win. Zach Wartley finished with 8 points while Dondi Harper II added 7 points for Lakeland.

T's Thoughts: "That was a hard fough win. Our numbers are down right now a bit, but we continue to battle. Obviously, we shot well from the line, but we have to give a lot of credit to Lorain tonight.  They fought hard and battled all night.  Our team really had to gut this win out - I'm really pleased with our overall effort."

Next Up: The Lakers will travel to Clark State on Saturday to face the Eagles in a 1:00 pm matchup.