The Lakeland men's basketball team traveled to Hocking College today to face the Hawks in OCCAC action. The Lakers led throughout before hanging on for a hard-fought 80-78 win. With the victory, the Lakers record improves to 19-6 and 13-1 in OCCAC play. The Lakers led early and controlled the play for most of the game. As the game continued though, it appeared the effects of playing 4 games in 7 days started to show. Lakeland started to look a bit tired and became sloppy with the ball. The Hawks were then able to climb back into the game as they took advantage of Lakeland turnovers. The Hawks would tie the game at 78 with under 15 seconds to play. On Lakeland's next possession, they would run an inbounds play where Micah Blackmon got the ball and was fouled. Blackmon calmly stepped to the line and sank both free throws as the Lakers regained their two point advantage. The Hawks would have one last possession and would miss desperation shots as the Lakers earned the win.

Statistics werer not available at time of print.

Coach T Talks: "Give credit to Hocking as they played hard and kept coming for us. This is a tough gym to win in. It was a tough stretch for us this week - 4 games in 7 days and 2 long trips - we just didn't have our legs today. I have to credit our team though as they still battled hard and were able to hang on for the win. i'm proud of their effort - we'll get some rest tomorrow before we get at it again with a big game on Wednesday."

Next Up: The Lakers have another long road trip on Wednesday (2/25) as they play a makeup league game at Edison State. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:00 pm.