Photo by Emily Daniels Lakeview’s Tyler Imes drives past a Canby defender during their game on Tuesday. The Lakers defeated the Lancers 56-41.

COTTONWOOD – A non-stop battle on the court between the Canby and Lakeview boys basketball teams would go down to the very end, but the Lakers, who trailed to start the game, completed the comeback and held on late en route to a 56-41 win over the Lancers Tuesday.

Coming off the win Lakers coach Jared Keaveny saw a lot of effort from the team on the court and confidence that helped them come out on top over the Lancers.

“We showed a lot of resilience, we got down early and our effort was great,” said Keaveny. “We talked about playing hard and winning every battle and one thing at a time and not getting ahead of ourselves. We played hard every minute, we never panicked when we were down, we got stops and I think that helped us build the confidence”

The battle of the two Camden Conference teams saw both sides get out to a back-and-forth start. Canby got things going with a five-point run but Lakeview broke the point run and put themselves on the board. The Lancers continued to hold their lead and found themselves with a 9-3 advantage over the Lakers with 14:13 left to play in the first half. With Canby holding their ground on the offense side of things, Lakeview was too.

The Lakers didn’t let the Lancers pull away with a big lead and found themselves behind by only four points at 15-11 with 10:12 remaining in the first. Parker Hoffman became a big asset to the Lakers offense with a 3-pointer that closed the gap to 18-16 with 7:59 on the clock, followed by was another basket that tied the score up at 18. Hoffman still continued to show his strengths on the court, keeping the Lakers in the game. The score remained tied up at 20-20 as the time went down and the opportunities rose, and the Lancers took their chance to take the lead back and did just that. Canby took a small 23-22 lead over Lakeview with just 3:47 left to play in the first half but Lakeview responded well to the Lancers and took the lead back to find themselves with a 27-25 advantage going into halftime.

Coming right back into the second half, both the Lancers and the Lakers came in aggressive and playing fast basketball. A lot of back and forth play was seen from the teams as they both tried to get back into the groove of the game. Lakeview found themselves quickly and started to offensively dominate the floor, as the Lakers gained a 36-28 lead with 13:40 remaining in the game. Canby couldn’t quite find its opportunity as fast as Lakeview did, missing shots and creating unnecessary turnovers that gave the advantage to the Lakers.

The Lakers remained presently dominant on the floor and took every opportunity they got to put more points on the board. Lakeview’s point run came to an end when the Lancers came back into the game with back-to-back 3-pointers that closed the gap to 40-34 with just under 10 minutes left to play. The energy on the floor for the Lancers changed after they got their heads back into the game and found their groove again. Canby kept the score close, but Lakeview fought back and continued to hold a steady 45-37 lead. Both of the teams picked up the pace again, playing aggressive and causing unnecessary fouls that could’ve been avoided. With 5:48 remaining in the game, the Lancers closed the gap to 45-41 and this caused both teams to start putting up shots at a quick pace.

Rebounding became the Lakers’ ally, as strong opportunities on the glass for Lakeview was a big asset that they used to their advantage to keep a 47-41 lead over the Lancers. Riley Kockelman was a strong player that the Lancers used to keep themselves in the game. With the clock counting down the final minutes of the game, the Lancers were taking every chance they had to catch up to the Lakers, who now held a 48-41 lead with just under three minutes left to play. Lakeview didn’t slow down their togetherness on the court, taking an even bigger lead at 50-41 with just 2:22 on the clock before holding on for the 56-41 win over Canby.

Going forward, Keaveny sees the strengths that the team already has but knows that they can work on it and move forward and become a stronger and better team.

“We have to learn the lesson that we had a great win because of effort but we still have to improve on,” said Keaveny. “It’s great and we’ll feel great but we have to get back to work.”

The Lancers will be back in action at home on Thursday as they take on the Minneota Vikings and the Lakers will travel to Minneota on Friday as they take on the Vikings as well.