Junior Rams top Trojans in regular season finale

Lakeside’s junior high boys’ basketball team closed the regular season Monday with a 59-53 victory against Hot Springs at the Lakeside Athletic Complex.

The junior Rams trailed, 30-28, at halftime, but they moved ahead, 41-35, by the start of the fourth quarter. Lakeside’s Pierce Smalley set up Wylyn Harris for a shot late in the third and Hot Springs’ Alveon Harris answered with a putback with 10 seconds remaining until the fourth.

Both teams scored 18 points in the final frame. “We only got a few ninth graders on that squad and we’re mostly eight grade,” said Hot Springs junior high head coach Justin Delamar. “They all played good tonight.”

Hot Springs led, 7-6, after the first quarter. Lakeside’s Taevon Johnson set the tone for the second quarter with a 3-pointer and Jamison Craig gave Lakeside a 12-7 lead with five minutes left in the half.

“I thought Brock Garner played really well, especially defensively,” said Lakeside junior high head coach Cody Lambert. “Johnson did well with his free throws and really took care of the ball. We have district tournament coming up and we’ll probably have to play them again on Monday, but at their place.”

Alveon Harris tied it at 24-24 with a 3-pointer with 1:30 left until halftime. Garner answered answered with a layup for the Rams, but Harris quickly gained possession for the Trojans and again tied the score at

26-all before moving ahead by halftime. Johnson paced the junior Rams with 15 points, Garner scored 14 points, and Wylyn Harris had 13 points and eight rebounds. Craig tallied nine points and seven rebounds, while Evan Ashcraft and Jordan Mills grabbed seven and five rebounds, respectively.

Alveon Harris paced the junior Trojans with 13 points and three rebounds. Devern Brown also scored

13 points.

The teams could meet in the conference tournament, which will begin at Hot Springs on Saturday.

* Hot Springs won the eighth-grade matchup,

39-28.

“It was a battle. Hot Springs is a good basketball team,” Lambert said. “They played well.

“We knew it was going to be tough since it was a rivalry game, our kids play with their kids all year long. It was a fun game to be a part of.”

“Both teams played hard. I had several eighth graders that stepped up big for us,” Delamar said. “They’ve been stepping up for us all year.”

Lakeside led, 7-4, at the close of the opening frame and still had a 17-14 advantage at the end of the first half. The junior Rams secured a 28-21 lead by the start of the fourth quarter.

“I think we’ve got a shot to play with anybody,” said Johnson.

“We took a lot of lumps this year, but I think we’ve made a lot of growth. Hopefully, we learn from our losses and get better every game.”