Slow Start Hurts Lakeland Christian In Home LossWINONA LAKE – Slow starts have been hurting the Lakeland Christian Academy boys basketball team lately, and Thursday night wasn’t much different in its 57-28 non-conference loss to visiting Lakewood Park Christian. At the end of the first quarter Lakewood Park had established a 14-2 lead, which expanded to 32-6 by halftime. The home-standing Cougars were able to right the ship somewhat after halftime, but the damage had been done by then. At the beginning of the season, sixth-year Cougar head coach Chris Hohm knew he had a young squad on his hands. He said it isn’t a matter of the team not working hard. “We’re definitely young, and we’ve had some games where we hoped that youth would be experienced by now,” Hohm said. “It’s a group that works really hard, but struggles with execution, and that’s been our downfall, especially early in games. “Teams come out and are a little more crisp than us. We missed a few shots early tonight; if they had gone down that would have helped us out “They’re working hard, but tonight we were overmatched.” After being blanked in the first half, freshman Seth Martin, the leading Cougar scorer at 13.5 points a game, hit a three-pointer in the third quarter, then added three more buckets to finish with a team-high nine points. Sophomore Silas Gagnon finished with eight points and five rebounds. “Silas has really come on for us throughout the year,” Hohm said. “When he first got here I thought he’d be a big piece of our offense, but he struggled out of the gate. Lately he’s become much more consistent for us, knocking down inside shots and rebounding well. He’s gotten better on defense as well. “Seth has been our top scorer all season. He started the season really strong, but then scouting reports started catching up with him a little bit. He knows we need him, so he’s been taking tougher shots than he did earlier in the season.” Brayden Lane hit four free throws in the contest, with Landon Paris sinking a three-pointer in the fourth quarter. Matthew Helton and Peter Keller had two points each to complete the LCA scorebook. The Cougars (3-16) host Smith Academy at 2:30 Saturday afternoon.
