MEGHAN VANLOAN (#50) attempts to block Yarmouth's Jessica Kirk's shot. (Rivet Photo)
LAKER GIRLS
Heal Rank: #6, 11-6
Moving Up: One spot following Tuesday’s thrilling 46-44 road win against Poland. The Lakers continued their winning run over the Knights (Poland has yet to beat the Lakers since the school opened) thanks to a three-point shot by Kristen Huntress with 13 seconds left.
Ranked 10th (the final playoff spot), Poland led the Lakers 25-23 at the half. But, the Lakers stormed back with a 10-1 charge in the third quarter.
Lauren Jakobs paced the LR offense with 12 points, while Huntress added 11 and CeCe Hancock 10.
Poland’s Michaella Arsenault was the game’s high scorer with 26 points, while Hope Kohtala chipped in 10 points. The Knights fell to 9-8.
Games left: Yesterday, Feb. 4, at York (#3, 14-2).

By Wayne E. Rivet

Staff Writer

When the final buzzer sounded, CeCe Hancock could finally exhale.

Her team barely escaped an upset bid by a youthful Yarmouth squad 50-47 Saturday night as Lake Region won its 10th game.

Although CeCe had a very solid game by scoring 12 points and collecting five rebounds, she felt somewhat relieved after experiencing a nightmarish time at the foul line, missing six straight shots in the fourth quarter.

CeCe wasn’t alone.

The Lakers combined for a paltry 8-of-29 (including the front-end of four 1-and-1 chances) from the charity stripe, which partly enabled the Clippers to erase a seven-point fourth quarter deficit tot pull within a bucket with 4:01 left.

“We just lost our confidence at the line,” Laker Coach Paul True said after the game. “You could see it on the kids’ faces. It’s not that we don’t work at it every day, and it’s not that they don’t realize just how important it is to make those shots. We just really struggled. We’ve struggled all season.”

It was a struggle all night for the Lakers as they faced a hungry, active and talented group of Clippers, who needed a signature win to climb into the tourney race. Yarmouth is presently 11th, just a spot out of the playoffs.

The Clippers (6-10) featured a line-up void of a senior, and was led by freshman guard Sara D’Appolonia who tied for game-high honors with 14 points.

After the Clippers jumped out to an 8-4 lead, the Lakers rallied as guards Sarah Hancock threaded a pass inside to Meghan VanLoan for an easy hoop, and CeCe Hancock found freshman Lauren Jakobs inside for a score, as well as a free throw. CeCe knocked down a trey in the closing minute to give the Lakers a 12-11 lead after one period.

Lake Region managed to crank the tempo of the game with full-court pressure, which resulted in six Clipper turnovers and fastbreak chances. LR pushed its lead out to 11, but poor free throw shooting (3-of-8) kept them from taking full control.

Yarmouth scratched their way back into the game as freshman forward Meredith Lane was aggressive on the backboards (10 points on the night) and went 3-of-4 from the line, while Johanna Hattan converted an offensive rebound into a score as the Clippers trailed just 25-20 at the break.

The Lakers pressured the Clippers’ paint defense, scoring seven points (hoops by Sarah Hancock, Chandler True and Jakobs) on drives to the hoop. Again, they struggled at the line, making just 1-of-4 attempts, but still led 32-24.

Over the next 3:50, the Lakers went scoreless.

Meanwhile, Clipper sophomore Alison Clark heated up. Taking the basketball strong to the rim, Clark scored 7 of her 9 points over the final 3:31 as Yarmouth got back into the contest, down just 34-31.

LR ended the run as CeCe Hancock drew a couple of defenders and dished the ball to Jakobs for an easy lay-in.

With the game on the line, Sarah Hancock took control on Senior Night. The Laker floor general scored six of her 14 points down the stretch, hauled down three rebounds and handled the ball perfectly during a chaotic final two minutes.

Hancock sank a big pull-up jumper with 5:45 left to put the Lakers up 43-35.

Yarmouth answered as Cory Langenbach sank a 3-pointer and Ella Antolini scored off an offensive rebound to pull the Clippers to within 44-40 withy 4:20 left.

A pair of free throws made by Appolonia sliced the lead in half, but Laker sophomore guard Kristen Huntress took a little air out of the Clippers’ sail by draining a 3-pointer off a CeCe Hancock find with 3:13 left.

Like their counterparts, Yarmouth had chances to make things rather interesting over the final 2 minutes, but faltered the foul line, making just 3-of-8 attempts.

Down 48-45 with 30.8 seconds left on the clock, the Clippers had the ball near their bench, but were unable to inbound the ball within five seconds, resulting in a turnover.

Lake Region capitalized on the mistake as Sarah Hancock coolly sank a pair of foul shots with 28.4 seconds to extend the lead to 50-45.

Clark scored off a missed Yarmouth shot in the final seconds for the final tally of the night.

Stat lines

LR scoring: Kristen Huntress 7, Lauren Jakobs 5, Meghan VanLoan 5, Allison Morse 3, Alizah Thayer-Broussard 2, Spencer True 2.

3-Pointers: CeCe Hancock, Kristen Huntres

Top rebounders: Sarah Hancock 77, Meghan VanLoan 6, CeCe Hancock 5, Lauren Jakobs 5, Allison Morse 3, Chandler True 3.

FT: LR 8-of-29, YAR 14-of-26

FG: LR 19-of-52, YAR 15-of-57

Turnovers: LR 17, YAR 22

Rebounds: LR 34, YAR 30

Blocks: LR 3, YAR 6

In other action

Lauren Jakobs scored a game-high 16 points to lead the Lakers last week to a 54-42 victory at Freeport.

The Lakers jumped out to a 21-10 lead. Sarah Hancock chipped in 13 points while Kristen Huntress added 9, Chandler True 5, Meghan VanLoan 4, CeCe Hancock 4 and Alizah Thayer-Broussard 3.