Xavier Hall soars above the rim for a rim-shaking first half dunk.
                                 Brandt Young|Sampson Independent

Xavier Hall soars above the rim for a rim-shaking first half dunk.

Brandt Young|Sampson Independent

<p>Dashaun Carr reroutes his body to absorb contact and make a layup for the Leopards.</p>
                                 <p>Brandt Young|Sampson Independent</p>

Dashaun Carr reroutes his body to absorb contact and make a layup for the Leopards.

Brandt Young|Sampson Independent

<p>Cameron Williams fights through the defenders en route to a first half basket for Lakewood.</p>
                                 <p>Brandt Young|Sampson Independent</p>

Cameron Williams fights through the defenders en route to a first half basket for Lakewood.

Brandt Young|Sampson Independent

<p>Juan Parker Jr. fights with an opponent for control of the ball.</p>
                                 <p>Brandt Young|Sampson Independent</p>

Juan Parker Jr. fights with an opponent for control of the ball.

Brandt Young|Sampson Independent

RED SPRINGS — Taking on the St. Pauls Bulldogs in the Red Springs annual MLK tournament, the Lakewood Leopards boys’ basketball team was looking to dismantle yet another 2A SAC-6 foe on Saturday evening, and that they did when they routed the Bulldogs. A faster start than the Leopards have seen all year saw little reprieve for St. Pauls, as Lakewood rarely slowed down throughout the contest.

The game’s opening tip went to Juan Parker Jr. courtesy of Xavier Hall, but it was Hall who couldn’t connect on a layup for the game’s first bucket. St. Pauls would grab that on a layup at the other end, but Dashaun Carr would connect with Hall on a low pass to feed the Leopards’ first points on their next trip via a Hall dunk. Hall would collect his own rebound on the following trip down the court, courtesy of a Dontaveous Smith steal, and Cameron Williams would add two more from another Smith steal, as it would be Lakewood’s front court that produced the first six points of the game for the ‘visiting’ Leopards.

Hall would add another layup early on, and with 5:08 to play in the first, Lakewood jumped out to the 8-2 advantage and forced a Bulldog timeout. After back-to-back buckets by St. Pauls, Hall got the ball to Williams for an assist on a layup as the score moved to 11-6. The Bulldogs would grab another layup, closing the gap to just three points.

Hall would be fouled on another dunk attempt south of four minutes, but couldn’t connect on the slam nor the free throws as Lakewood seemed to have cooled off. The cool off didn’t last, though, as Lakewood climbed back out to the 15-8 advantage with under 1:30 in the opening period due to tough defensive pressure and an efficient offense.

The Bulldogs were able to force many consecutive turnovers from Lakewood, by way of steals and empty possessions, but couldn’t capitalize. Smith hit a deep two as the quarter ended, extending the lead to 19-11.

St. Pauls would grab a free throw to open scoring in the second, but Jaziah Brunson would add a layup to give Lakewood the nine-point lead once more. Williams would extend it to double digits on two successful free throws. He would add another layup shortly after to make it 25-12 just shy of 1:30 into the second period.

The gap would widen even further to 29-13 just over a minute later on plays by Williams, Brunson, and company. Turnovers continued coming the Bulldogs’ way, either on steals or forced errors by way of the trap defense. Carr would feed Hall for his second dunk of the night to make it 31-15 with 4:16 to play in the half.

The teams traded possessions as the second quarter waned on, but Lakewood slowly trickled in reserve players to get some on-court action early in the game. The score sat at 31-17 with under two minutes to play in the opening half, when Carr added another drive through the lane to extend it to 33-17.

Nakai Owens fed Williams a bounce pass down low, continuing the dominance from the front court of the Leopards when Williams sank his layup. With a minute to go, the Leopards grew their lead to 35-19.

The teams broke for halftime with a score of 38-26 as the Bulldogs started a scoring run towards the end of the second quarter when the Leopards found themselves in a bit more foul trouble to end the half.

Both teams struggled out the gate to start the second half, but Cameron Williams would score four straight points to make it a 42-28 advantage nearly a minute in before the Bulldogs got a layup to answer.

Hall would send another dunk home to widen the gap to 46-33, keeping the Leopards firmly in control, regardless of what the Bulldogs did. Devin Jones would get in on the scoring action with a layup and Hall would add two via free throws, giving Lakewood the near-20 point advantage at 52-33 with 4:14 remaining in the third. Williams would add three more on a successful and-1.

Momentum stayed on Lakewood’s side as their defense continued to pester the Bulldogs into bad shots, miscommunications, and turnovers galore. St. Pauls hit a three-pointer to gain some traction, but Williams answered nearly immediately with a turnaround jumper along the left baseline to make it 59-36 in the latter half of the third.

Like at the end of the second, the Bulldogs had a surge to end the third. St. Pauls utilized the full-court trap to force Lakewood into turning the ball over, and in a hurry after consecutive layups and a three-pointer, the Lakewood lead was cut to 59-47, forcing Brandon Powell to signal for a timeout with 25.3 seconds left in the period. A similar situation played out on the inbound coming out of the timeout, and the Bulldogs got the uncontested layup to cut the lead to ten.

The third quarter would end with Lakewood still ahead 59-49.

Hall would fight through contact just 11 seconds into the fourth on a baseline layup and would sink the subsequent foul shot to put points on the board for Lakewood once more, stopping their drought.

Scoring started off at a rapid pace for both teams, as the score moved to 66-53 just a minute into the final quarter. A three-point and-1 for the Bulldogs would cut the lead to 10, but Williams added his own at the other end, which fouled out one of the Bulldogs’ big men north of six minutes.

Brunson would add a pair of points on a layup, extending the Lakewood lead to 15 at 71-56, as the Leopards continued to stave off the comeback by the Bulldogs. St. Pauls brought it back to just a 10-point deficit for the school listed as the home team in the tournament game as the fourth quarter was halfway complete.

The Lakewood lead would be cut to eight at 71-63 with 3:04 to play, but Hall would push it back to 10 just 10 seconds later on a layup.

The Bulldogs continued to try and trap the Leopards in the back court, not allowing them to push the ball past the half court mark, but speed and size were on Lakewood’s side. Williams and Hall would often be the ones to receive the inbound pass and Parker or Brunson would be awaiting the long pass for the easy score. With this offense, Lakewood led 77-63 with 1:35 to play, cruising to their third win over a 2A SAC-6 school this season.

Hall had a long two and Williams fed Parker for a low block score, pushing the Leopards past 80 points once more. Parker and Brunson both tried to get alley-oops to Hall, but he couldn’t finish either play late in the fourth.

After back-and-forth action to end it, Lakewood would walk away with the 82-71 victory over the Bulldogs.

Strategy was the catalyst for Lakewood’s victory, which was pointed out by head coach Brandon Powell, notably about the fast opening and the answer for the tough full-court press the Bulldogs were employing in the late stages. “We’ve just been trying to get the guards moving the ball a little bit better,” he said. “We want to become a bit more up-tempo … Unfortunately, they get a little relaxed when they get big leads and I think we relaxed a bit too much, which kind of swung the momentum, which caused it to be closer than I thought it should have been.”

Powell went on to note how the Leopards simply implemented the press-break they had worked on in practice to break through the trap defense they saw late in the game.

Lakewood moved to 11-1 on the season with the win.

Reach Brandt Young at (910) 247-9036, at byoung@clintonnc.com, or on the Sampson Independent Facebook page.