The Lakeland women's basketball team travelled to Edison State today to face the Chargers in OCCAC action. Earlier in the season, the Lakers beat Edison State; but tonight, the Chargers avenged the loss by defeating Lakeland 64-50 to split the season series. With the loss, the Lakers record falls to 13-11 overall and 7-5 in the OCCAC. In the first half, the Lakers were unable to match the energy of the Chargers as they struggled to create quality offensive opportunities. The Chargers took a 38-19 lead into the break. The Lakers started the 3rd quarter with great effort as they tried to cut into the deficit. Joh'niqua Clay scored 10 points in the quarter in an effort to help spark Lakeland. Again, the Chargers fought back and expanded their lead even more by the end of the quarter. In the 4th quarter, Lakeland continued to battle and they slowly cut into the Charger lead. Lakeland was led by Kennedy Coleman and her 8 points in the quarter while five different Lakers scored. In the end, Lakeland ran out of time as they fell to the Chargers.

Joh'niqua Clay led the Lakers with 19 points while Kennedy Coleman finished with 11 points. Monetta Hilory recorded 9 points while Arianna Vera and Emerson Hren added 4 points each. Raegan Perkins-Hirz chipped in 3 points in the Laker loss.

Coach Gardy's Gab: "Give credit to Edison as they played hard on their court and shot the ball well. We had a challenging first half, but continued to play hard in the second half. Definitely some positives on a difficult mid-week trip. We have some time now before District play and so we will regroup and come out ready to go."

Next Up: The Lakers will be off until Districts as their scheduled opponent for this weekend recently cancelled their season. On Saturday (2/28), sophomores will be recognized prior to the men's game. The program is expected to begin at 10:45 am. Lakeland will next play on Friday, March 5, at Mott Community College in Region XII's District Tournament. The opponent and game time is still to be determined.