ORILLIA LAKERS
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The Legion Br. 34 Lakers girls brought home the silver medal from the Ontario Division 2 Basketball Championship.
After being ranked 6th in the eight-team division, the Lakers proved they belonged, winning their first three games, advancing to the Division 2 championship.
The Lakers came up against the tough Advantage Titans, who had won all their games by 20+ points in pool play. The Lakers took a second-half lead, but foul trouble took the Lakers out of their game plan and to unfavourable matchups against the taller, physical Titans team.
In the third quarter, the Titans took control of the game and went on to defeat the Lakers 67-37 for the gold medal.
Hennessy Langner led the way for the Lakers, scoring 18 points, while foul trouble seemed to affect the rest of the girls who could not get into the flow of the game.
Mya Erskine, Lauryn Buchan and Zoe Peeters were, however, able to contribute five points each. Emma Thomson and Taylor Betchold-Conn contributed two points each.
Although the loss was tough for the Lakers, they held their heads high on winning a silver medal, a 25-5 season and a final ranking of 18th in the province out of the 75 major midget girl teams.
Their first game of the championship tournament, the Lakers wentup against #2 seed North Toronto Huskies. The girls took an early lead and cruised to a 55-44 win. Ashley Schryer led the way scoring 13 points. Also scoring were Lilja Toland (10), Emma Thomson (8), Lauryn Buchan (7), Mya Erskine and Taylor Betchold-Coon (6) and Zoe Peeters (5).
In the second game of the weekend, the girls were up against #3 seed London Ramblers. In this game the Lakers once again pulled ahead early and went on to a 55-45 victory. In this game Hennessy Langner led the scoring with 12 points. Other scorers were Emma Thomson (11), Mya Erskine and Taylor Betchold-Coon (9), Ashley Schryer and Lilja Toland (5) and Zoe Peeters and Lauren Murphy (2).
With a trip to the gold medal game on the line, the Legion girls came up against the Ottawa Valley Pride. This game was a back and forth, closely battled game, when the Lakers tough team defence was finally too much for the Valley Pride in the fourth quarter, tiring them out, and leading the Lakers to a 47-35 triumph.
Once again Hennessy Langner was the leader of the team scoring 10 points. And with a balanced attack, the other scorers this game were Ashley Schryer (8), Mya Erskine (7), Lauryn Buchan (6), Emma Thomson and Taylor Betchold-Coon (5), Lilja Toland (4) and Zoe Peeters (2).
The coaches thank the parents for their support, the girls for all their hard work and Legion Branch #34 for stepping in as team sponsor!
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