The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The Lakewood basketball team has been left with a bitter taste in their mouths following a disappointing end to last season.
After starting 10-0 with a direct path to a Moore League championship, the Lancers dropped their final two games of the season and finished second place behind Long Beach Poly. Heading into this season, Lancers coach Duane Cooper calls it “unfinished business.”
“That might be my theme for the year,” he said. “With this group, we started out 10-0, but we didn’t finish. We didn’t win and we didn’t finish the season how we wanted to and it’s my goal to finish this season right. That was our goal last year but we didn’t finish.”
The former Los Angeles Laker coaches a gritty brand of basketball where different players can step up on any given night. The Lancers return key players from last season while younger guys will look to fill in bigger roles, and Cooper says there’s no solidified starting five for his team.
“On any given day it’ll be whoever is most effective that’s playing,” he said. “We have a lot of players coming back. It’ll be a mixture of young and experienced players. We have older guys with some experience and some younger guys who are going to be filling in but in total it’s gonna be a collective effort.”
The Lancers will be without recent Mayfair transfer Anthony Williams but retain senior and leading scorer Keaton Lewis. Lewis, a 6-foot-3 first-team all Moore League guard, will be the face of the starting lineup after leading Lakewood last year with 12.3 points and six rebounds per game. Lewis says that he’s grown into a new role as a leader heading into his senior campaign.
“I feel like I’ve been developing my team leadership,” Lewis said. “I feel like an on-court coach. I feel like I’m able to tell my teammates what to do without being aggressive with it.”
Fellow first-team all league senior Kecedric Dockery will also be a key starter alongside returner Rapheal Johnson. Dockery had 9.3 points per game while Johnson had 7.4 and almost four rebounds per game.
“We’ll only go as far as they take us,” said Cooper of his seniors.
Lakewood will open up its Moore League schedule at Jordan on Dec. 13 and will face Cabrillo and Long Beach Poly the following week.
“It’ll be the little things,” said Cooper of what it’ll take to win close Moore League matchups. “Boxing out, taking a charge, making the extra pass, turning a good shot into a great shot, always looking to help out teammates, stuff like that.”
