By Coach Brian Walker

The Laker C-squad was looking to win its 4th straight game against the Benson Braves recently, but Benson’s height around the hoop and some timely 3 point shooting spoiled the Laker winning streak by defeating Minnewaska 46-35.  We need to continue to be aggressive to take the ball to the hoop even if they have a size advantage to challenge them to play defense.  Tristan O’Neil led the Lakers with 22 points, hitting a pair of 3’s and both of his FT attempts, while Riley Week added five points, Caleb Kath had four and Mason Danielson and Marshall Kopp each had two.  

•  The Lakers had just defeated BOLD by 10 points just two weeks earlier.  Minnewaska Area started off slow, but the positive was that the defense was holding its own as BOLD would only score 13 points as well to go into halftime deadlocked at 13 apiece.  We were getting decent shot opportunities, but struggled to finish around the rim.  The Lakers broke the game open with its defensive intensity in the second half to win comfortably.  Tristan O’Neil who was saddled with foul trouble in the first half, ignited the team with 11 second-half points and finished 5-of-6 from the line.  Conner Erickson scored seven points and had several hustle plays, while Riley Week had four points, Mason Danielson had a 3-pointer for three points, Ben Johnson, Marshall Kopp and Caleb Kath each had two points, and Carter Huckle finished the scoring with one point from the line.  It was a nice team effort and it was nice to see 8 of our 12 players score in the game with the other players making great contributions on the defensive end of the floor and making nice passes to set up a teammate. 

•  The Laker C-squad traveled to Litchfield for a game last Saturday against the Dragons in a game that was scheduled for earlier in the month.  Minnewaska jumped out early, but it was the second half that would prove the difference, as the Dragons would out score the Lakers 34-14 to come away with a 47-29 victory.  As a team, we could only make 5-of-15 shots in the second half, and for the game the Lakers hit 11-of-36 (31 percent) from the floor.  Litchfield’s defense had good length and caused us some problems that we had to battle through.  Conner Erickson led the way with nine points, while Drew Bleick and Tristan O’Neil each had six points, Ben Johnson had three, Riley Week and Oliver VanderHagen each had two, and Caleb Kath finished with one point.  

•  The team continued on the road with a trip to Montevideo last Tuesday night.  The Lakers had defeated Monte in the second game of the season, so we were looking to sweep the two game set.  The Lakers scored the first 20 points of the game to build a 20-0 start. The team was getting contributions from all ten of the players throughout the game and had seven players score in the first half.   Minnewaska led 31-4 at halftime and went on to earn a 49-26 victory for its fifth win in the last seven games, improving the team’s record to 7-9.  For the game, the Lakers made 18-of-46 shots (39 percent), including 5-of-16 from three-point range.  Nine Lakers got into the scoring column led by Tristan O’Neil’s 16 points.  Drew Bleick hit a pair of 3’s for six points, Ben Johnson and Conner Erickson each scored five, AJ Svec had four, Carter Huckle, Riley Week and Mason Danielson each scored three, and Ike Spychalla added two points.