The Lakeland men's basketball team played the Glen Oaks Vikings today on the second day of the St. Clair County tournament. Lakeland battled after a late night last second loss and came away with a hard fought 79-67 victory. With the win, the Lakers record improved to 7-3. Glen Oaks would use good 3-point shooting to take an 18-12 lead 6 minutes into the game. Juwan Turner would then score a layup to get the Lakers going. After a Laker miss, Turner would feed Jadallah Suleiman for a layup to make the score 18-16.  After a Viking basket, Micah Blackmon would kick the ball to Marlon Landingham for a 3-pointer to bring the Lakers within 1 point at 20-19. The teams would then trade baskets for the rest of the half as the score remained tight throughout. After a last second Viking 3-pointer, the teams would go into the break tied at 38.

In the 2nd half, both teams would miss shots in the first couple of minutes before Isaiah McAdams fed Jadallah Suleiman for a layup and a 40-38 Laker lead. The Vikings would take the lead on a 3-pointer before Micah Blackmon gave the Lakers the lead back on a layup. The Vikings would then regain the lead at 46-42 before Marlon Landingham fed Blackmon for another layup. Following a Viking miss, Amarion Glenn assisted on an Isaiah McAdams game tying layup. Both teams would miss on their following possessions until McAdams made another layup putting the Lakers up 48-46 with 15:05 to play. The teams would trade scores over the next few minutes before the Vikings slowly started to pull away building a 62-54 lead with 8:30 to play. Lakeland then buckled down. Micah Blackmon would hit 1-2 free throws before a Viking miss and foul of Jadallah Suleiman. Suleiman calmly sank both free throws to close the deficit to 62-57 with under 7 minutes to play. After a Viking made free throw, Alikai Creque would make a layup to make the score 63-59. Glen Oaks would miss their next shot and Creque would score a layup again on an assist from Juwan Turner. The Vikings would miss another shot and then foul Creque who hit both free throws to knot the score at 63 with under 5 minutes to play. Following a Glen Oaks miss, Isaiah McAdams would then complete a 3-point play after a layup to put the Lakers up 66-63. After another Viking miss, Alikai Creque drained a 3-pointer on an assist from Suleiman. Glen Oaks would miss its next shot and Isaiah McAdams would score another layup to put the Lakers up 71-63 with 2:13 to play. Both teams would then trade misses before Amarion Glenn fed Creque for a thunderous dunk putting the Lakers up by 10 points, 73-63, with 1:23 to play. From there, the Lakers were able to close out the win.

Lakeland had 4 players finish in double digits and were led by the games high scorer, Isaiah McAdams (22 points, 3 rebounds). Jadallah Suleiman (21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) and Alikai Creque (17 points, 7 rebounds) had strong games for the Lakers. Marlon Landingham recorded 10 points, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists while Micah Blackmon finished with 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. Juwan Turner added a bucket and a team high 8 rebounds in the win. 

Coach T's Talk: "Glen Oaks made a nice effort today and really pushed us - so credit to them. Three games in a week and 2 games in less than 24 hours is definitely a challenge. I was pleased that we continued to battle back and then were able to take charge toward the end. This was a pretty good team effort overall. We'll have a little break right now as the team works through finals. We'll get ourselves rested up a bit and be ready to get back into conference play next weekend."  

Next Up: The Lakers will travel to Terra State next Saturday (12/13) to face the Titans in OCCAC action. Tip off is scheduled for 11:00 am.