The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The Lakewood Lancers girls’ basketball program has achieved some major milestones recently, and they added another big one to the list last Friday night with a 66-25 over Compton on Senior Night.
Thanks to that win, the Lancers improved their league record to 10-2 this season, earning at least a share of the Moore League title for the first time since the 1991-92 season.
After dropping their Moore League opener against Jordan back in December, the Lancers rattled off nine league wins in a row. One of those wins made history as they snapped Long Beach Poly’s 17-year, 212-game Moore League winning streak with a 57-51 at Ron Palmer Pavilion on Dec. 18.
With a bye next week, the Lancers are the first team to wrap up the regular season, finishing at 16-11 overall. Lakewood’s next game will be in the CIF-SS playoffs, where they’ve also had recent success–reaching the CIF-SS Division 2A title game two seasons ago.
It’s been a 34 year wait since the Lancers could celebrate a league title in girls’ hoops, when they shared the trophy with both Poly and Millikan. This year’s title could also be shared, if Jordan is able to defeat Wilson on Tuesday evening. The Panthers are currently 9-2 in league play after splitting the season series against Lakewood.
The Lancers last won an outright league title in the 1990-91 season.
This marks the fourth consecutive season that Lakewood has gone 10-2 against the Moore League under head coach Eric Oswell, but this year’s team has been led mostly by underclassmen. According to stats on MaxPreps, freshman Aniyah Lidsay has averaged a team-leading 16.7 points per game for Lakewood. Followed by 8.2 ppg from freshman Leilah Sieng and 6.4 from sophomore Mahlia Simmons.
After getting this week off, Lakewood will learn their postseason draw on Saturday morning when the CIF-SS playoff brackets are released.
