Lakeland Community college's men's basketball team edged the Hocking College Hawks 70-69 last night at Lakeland. This game started poorly for the men in blue as they were down by as many as 17 points in the first half. The Hawks looked quicker and sharper throughout the early parts of the game to build their lead. The Lakers finally found their game though and were able to trim the deficit to 42-33 at the half. From there, the game would get very interesting.
The teams battled back and forth early on until Trevon Granger, Da'ron Falkner , and Calvin Giles hit consecutive baskets to trim the lead to 5 points. The Hawks would then go on a run and built the lead back up to 13 (52-39) with 14:01 to play. From there, Falkner, Giles, and Jeramie Burge went on a tear and Lakeland finally took their first lead at 65-63 with 3:09 to play. After an Alonzo Hamilton free throw, the Hawks would go on a minirun that was followed by a Burge free throw to knot the score at 67. The Hawks Darnei Hairston would then hit a baseline floater with under 10 seconds to play to give the Hawks a 69-67 edge. The Lakers then moved the ball to their half and called a timeout with 4.1 seconds to play. Both teams then used an additional timeout in trying to find a strategy to secure a win. The Lakers inbounded the ball to Jeramie Burge beyond the arc at the top of the key. The freshman Burge dribbled to his right and was heavily guarded by two Hawks defenders. Burge then shot the ball with defenders in his face at the buzzer and hit nothing but net as the Lakers secured the 70-69 victory.
On the night, Da'ron Falkner had 15 points and 6 rebounds, Calvin Giles had 11 points and 18 rebounds, while Jeramie Burge finished with a team high 28 points. With the win, the Lakers improved to 4-3 while the Hawks dropped to 7-6.
The Lakers are back in action this Saturday as they travel to Piqua, Ohio to play the Edison Community College Chargers. They will then make the trek to Batavia, New York to play Genesee Community College Sunday. Game times for both games is 3 p.m. The team will then be off for the holidays and return to action Jan. 11 when they will travel to Columbus State to play the Cougars at 7:30 p.m.