Princeton tops Lakewood to claim crown

This past Friday, the Lady Leopards of Lakewood High School found themselves in their third faceoff of the season against Princeton. After losing to them in their previous encounters, they looked to get revenge, this time in the Carolina 1A Conference Tournament Championship. Unfortunately for the Lady Leopards, though, Lakewood fell short of that goal on their own home court, falling by the final score of 58-43.

The game was relatively close for all of the first two quarters. Once the halftime break ended, though, it was all downhill from there. Lakewood began to struggle on both ends of the court which led to the Lady Bulldogs pulling too far ahead for the Lady Leopards to come back from.

It’s unfortunate for Lakewood because their defense played pretty solid all night but sporadic bad phases led to many easy baskets and allowed small runs here and there from Princeton. Aside from that, the Lady Leopards forced an abundance of turnovers and there was no shortage of blocks or steals.

Even when the defense didn’t have gaps or missed plays, it didn’t matter because Lakewood struggled to find a basket in the second half. They did generate a few buckets but cold spells plagued them right when the Lady Bulldogs were making a run. Princeton also started going heavily to a press which generated a fair share of turnovers for them as well, which led to points in transition that the Bulldogs capitalized on more effectively.

Because of these short comings what was once a three-point game, 21-18 at halftime, turned into an unsurmountable margin of 43-29 going into the fourth.

Another huge factor that lead to this was the free throw line, which came up big for Princeton. While it’s true both side played fairly well on defense there, it’s also true that many fouls were called on on both teams. The Lady Bulldogs performance at the line, though, is certainly helped them gain and keep their distance on the scoreboard, going 20-of-28 to ensure that once Princeton got the lead they kept it.

Lakewood also had their time at the line but vastly under performed, going just 8-of-25. For obvious reasons, these missed opportunities really hurt the Lady Leopards in the second half when they had those scoring lapses and Princeton took advantage.

Rilya Mitchell was near unstoppable for Lakewood, leading the scoring charge with 21 points. Gwendolyn King also had a solid night, finishing with 11. Taylor Sykes and Kamari Walker chipped in four a piece and Sariya Doss had three.

Although they didn’t manage to win the championship, the Lady Leopards still finish the season 7-3, theif only losses coming from the Princeton. With conference championship runner-up secured, Lakewood will now turn their focus to the upcoming playoffs, which they kicked off on Tuesday evening with a road trip up to Granville Central.