NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA LAKERS
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Over the years, the Orillia Lakers U15 boys put in a lot of overtime practising and training in order to reach their goal of playing in the provincial championship.
This weekend that goal was realized. The Lakers earned a chance to compete with the other six top-ranked teams in the province. Three overtime games later the team proved it belonged but came home just short of a medal.
In the first game of the weekend the Lakers played the Kitchener-Waterloo Vipers. As always, the Lakers’ defence was excellent. The Lakers opened an 11-point lead early in the second half but the larger Vipers got plenty of second-chance points and closed the gap late as the Lakers’ shooting went cold, finishing the game shooting only 25 per cent. The Vipers came up with the 57-53 win in overtime. Dmitri Zakiev powered the Lakers with a 10-point, 16-rebound, 10-block triple-double, while Jayden Spezzano had an inspired performance off the bench with eight points and excellent defence on the Vipers’ top threat.
In the second game, the Lakers faced the eventual champions, S-Elite from Milton, in a must-win game. The Lakers were playing well but it looked like the medal dream would end early in the weekend when S-Elite led by nine with only two minutes left. The Lakers, however, did not give up. Caden McFee, who finished the game with an incredible 27 points and 19 rebounds, scored seven points in the last two minutes and made a key steal as the Lakers improbably sent the game to overtime. In overtime, it was a William LePage dagger three-pointer on a beautiful setup from Ezra-Terrell Attah that made the Lakers the only team to knock off S-Elite.
The Lakers had everything to play for in their third game. A win against Hoopzone would earn the Lakers the top seed and a trip to the semifinals and a loss would end their weekend early. The game was close throughout and the Lakers forced Hoopzone to make several clutch plays to get it to overtime, where the Lakers came up just short, 59-56. McFee again led the way with 20 points. Nathan Litherland added 13 points on 4-10 shooting from 3. Takoda Plett, McFee, LePage and Zakiev all finished the game with at least eight rebounds. Mason Chapler contributed excellent pressure defence throughout.
The Lakers would like to thank their sponsors, JL Construction, Rama First Nation, Flynn Group, Simcoe Development, Telford Property Management, and Cubic Feet Designs, for making this historic season a possibility.
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