Lakeside sweeps Hot Springs in junior high basketball action
Lakeside and Hot Springs met at the Lakeside Athletic Complex Thursday for multiple games of junior high basketball action.
The seventh grade Rams took care of business, defeating the Trojans 37-26. Lakeside collected most of its points on fast breaks. The seventh grade Rams improved to 5-1 on the season.
Hudson Choate led the charge, collecting 21 points for Lakeside. Hot Springs’ halfcourt press was not enough for the ball handling ability of Lakeside’s Axl Janske.
Hot Springs’ seventh graders were led by Daron Hicks with 11 points. The seventh grade Trojans fell to 1-1 on the season.
The school’s eighth grade teams faced off after the seventh grade game.
Hot Springs came out with half-court trap defense, but Lakeside’s eighth grade boys defeated Hot Springs 20-17.
The 3-ball was successful early for the Rams as the teams swapped leads in the first half.
The halftime score was 14-13 in favor of the Rams.
“It was an ugly game,” Lakeside head coach Blake Ward said. “I was proud of how hard our kids played and competed. We did not play our best basketball tonight but we battled and won the game.”
Lakeside ran a 2-3 zone defense and kept the Trojans off the scoreboard in the third period.
The Rams were led by Emerson Collins with seven points and Quardarius Jackson with five points.
Hot Springs was led in scoring by Anthony Thomas Jr. with seven points.
The eighth grade Trojans dropped to 1-3 on the season.
“Our guards really did a good job of handling their pressure and taking care of the ball and getting it to the right guys,” Ward said. “They rebounded the basketball and it is a good team win for us.”
The eighth grade Rams’ record went to 6-0 on the year.
The junior high Rams and junior high Trojans tipped after the eighth grade game. Jackson, who saw time in the eighth grade game, had six points.
“He is an eighth grader,” Ward said. “He gets his one period in the eighth grade game and then he is moved up. We have had some injuries on our ninth grade team so asking an eighth grader to really step in and do a lot. I am just super proud of him.”
Jackson is an eighth grader that stands at 6 feet, 1 inch.
Lakeside defeated Hot Springs 34-17, securing the sweep in all three games.
“Super proud of our kids,” Ward said. “We played hard.
The ninth grade game was kind of ugly at times. That was kind of the theme tonight. These are two teams that really want to compete with each other and play really hard.”
Hot Springs guard Demond Hicks rang up a deep trey with 3:45 to go in the second, making the score 9-5 Lakeside.
“We got to keep working,” Hot Springs head coach Stanley Malcom said. “We had some bright spots and bad spots, but we are going to continue to work. The team can learn.”
Demond Hicks had six points versus the Rams, and the Trojans’ record is 6-2.
Jabari Jacobs intercepted Jackson’s pass and took it coastto-coast to spark the Trojans on a rally. That led to a tie score of 13-13 with 4:40 to go in the third period.
Caleb Rogers and Jackson each had five rebounds against Hot Springs.
Hot Springs point guard Xavier Carter shined for the Trojan offense, scoring six points and all of them were from 3-point range.
Lakeside improved to 6-2 with the win over Hot Springs.
“I am just really proud of how hard my kids played tonight,” Ward said.
Lakeside point guard Beau Brock scored 16 points, sinking three from beyond the arc.
“That was a tough zone defense by Lakeside,” Malcom said. “They have great coaching over there. We just have to keep battling.”
Ward highlighted his team’s 3-point ability.
“We sure did, that is something we knew we needed to do tonight,” he said. “We felt pretty confident. Hot Springs plays that 1-3-1 defense and we knew we needed to knock down some threes to really open up the paint for us. That was really big for us tonight.”