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NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA LAKERS
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The Millwood Logistics Orillia Lakers novice boys won gold this past weekend at the MUMBA tournament in Markham.
Having just lost a heartbreaking gold medal game in overtime at the Barrie Royals tournament two weeks ago, the Lakers didn’t want to let another chance at gold slip away.
This time, the Lakers were matched up with a tough Triple Balance squad from Toronto in the championship game. Once again they found themselves in a back-and-forth game that was tied with less than 30 seconds to play.
Aiden Vincent made the key hustle play by tipping a loose ball to a wide-open Caden McFee under the basket for the game-winning layup as the Lakers won 36-34. Nathan Litherland carried the team offensively with 18 points and McFee finished with seven.
After starting the tournament with an easy 55-23 win over MUMBA, the Lakers managed to pull out a close game with Toronto’s North Region Crazy Catz, 41-35. Litherland (13), William Lepage (11) and McFee (8) led the scoring against North Region who had already knocked off the tournament’s top-seeded team from Thornhill.
Now the Lakers needed to win or lose by no more than three against Thornhill in order to make the final.
After trailing 21-11 at half the Lakers were able to adjust to the physical defence the officials were allowing and held Thornhill scoreless for the first 10 minutes of the second half.
With Thornhill still up by five, and six seconds remaining Lepage was fouled and made two clutch shots to trim the deficit just enough to temporarily give the Lakers a spot in the final.
Thornhill knew they needed to score and managed two contested shots in the dying seconds. The Lakers were unable to get the rebound but the buzzer sounded just before Thornhill’s third attempt went in.
Both teams celebrated thinking they had made the final, but the officials confirmed that the shot was released a fraction of a second too late allowing the Lakers to advance in first place after the 27-24 loss. McFee lead the way with six points, while Lepage and Jackson MacIntyre had four each.
The Millwood Logistics Orillia Lakers Novice Boys are now 18-8 overall.
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