The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The562’s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser.
Lakewood’s Nyemah King remained calm while her Lancers trailed by 10 points early in the second quarter on Thursday at Jordan.
King and the Lancers slowly dipped away and an 11-0 run to end the first half gave Lakewood the momentum it needed to mount a comeback and grab a 52-43 win to finish second in the Moore League.
“The goal was to just stay focused,” King said. “They were up for a little bit, but we didn’t let that stop us. We just kept doing what we wanted to do.”
The junior scored 30 points as she applied relentless pressure on the Panthers’ wings and scored most of her points in the paint with eight more coming at the free throw line.
In the first quarter, Jordan used its speed and transition game to build a 15-8 lead after the first quarter. Asia Edwards led the Panthers charge while Savannah Hernandez and Breana Patu both grabbed six rebounds.
Lakewood senior Cristina Jones was relentless in the paint finishing the game with 16 points and 10 rebounds. When King wasn’t initiating the offense, Jones was driving to the basket and looking for her teammates. Lakewood’s defense played a big part of their victory with 23 steals as a team.
“We’re going to the playoffs,” King said. “We just want to take little bits from each game that we’re lacking and we just want to build and build.”
In the fourth quarter, Jordan’s Bryanna Moran led a furious charge scoring five of her 14 points in the quarter as the Panthers tied the game 37-37.
Lakewood put the game away with a 9-0 run.
Both teams will now await their playoff matchups with CIF brackets released on Sunday.
