Photo by Jake Przytarski Lakeview’s Sierra Plotz shoots a jumper during their game against Dawson-Boyd on Friday. The Lakers defeated Dawson-Boyd 67-50.

COTTONWOOD – All season long, the Lakeview girls basketball team has come to rely on balanced scoring to guide them to victories.

Keeping true to their winning formula, the Lakers stayed the course and reaped the benefits on Friday with a 67-50 win that featured three Lakeview players in double figures, and two with double-doubles.

Reflecting on the team’s performance, Lakers coach Mike Imes was pleased with the balanced scoring created through strong ball movement and went on to tip his cap to Kaitlynn Bot, who put together one of her best games as a Laker.

“The girls energy was very good, and I thought we did a nice job offensively moving the ball too, and found some nice open shots,” said Imes. “Kaitlynn Bot had the best game of her career, really stepped up and played well for us. I told the girls it was a team win because we had a lot of balanced scoring and took care of the ball much better than we had the night before.”

In spite of having to deal with a depleted bench due to illness and injury, the Blackjacks came out ready to play from the opening tip, and even took a 10-8 lead early thanks to a 3-pointer from the game’s leading scorer in Alex Sather.

The Lakers – utilizing a full-court press for most of the contest – quickly reestablished momentum with points coming from the fast break that contributed to their 13-4 scoring run, and gave them their largest lead to that point at 21-14 following a basket by Aubrey Kaczmarek.

For Imes, the defensive intensity exhibited by his team played a key role in coming out of Friday night’s game with a victory.

“I thought our defensive intensity was there right from the get-go,” said Imes. “It just seemed like we didn’t allow them to get into a flow of offensive rhythm at all. Our press definitely hurt them, and I thought coming into the game that was our goal was to just make them really have to fight hard just to get any buckets they got, and I thought we did that for the most part.”

Before the half, the Lakers continued to pile up the points with Bot and Savannah Rausch making their presence felt on the inside with big baskets in the final minutes of play to give their team a 40-23 lead at the break.

After going quiet offensively down the stretch of the first half, the Dawson-Boyd came alive once more to open up the second as Jenna Wyum and Sather knocked down back-to-back 3-point shots to cut the lead to 11 points at 40-29.

Fortunately for the Lakers, the comeback attempt by the Blackjacks was put to bed rather quickly as Lakeview proceeded to go on a 18-7 scoring run capped off by a 3-pointer from Savanna Louwagie to push the lead to a comfortable 22-points at 58-36.

The Blackjacks remained determined to battle to the end, outscoring the Lakers 14-9 down the stretch but fell short as Lakeview picked up the victory in a 67-50 final.

Helping to guide the Lakers to victory were Bot and Rausch, who both ended the night with double-doubles – including 13 points and 12 boards for Rausch and a team-high 16 points and 10 rebounds for Bot. Kaczmarek also ended the game in double figures with 10 points, while Louwagie and Sierra Plotz finished with eight points apiece.

Kiana Imes, who sustained an injury late in the game, finished with four points and a pair of rebounds.

The Blackjacks were led by Sather with a game-high 21 points to go along with a team-high three assists and four rebounds. Megan Mamer and Wyum both ended the game with eight points, while Avery Bartunek finished with six. Mary Bothun tied for the team lead in rebounds with Mamer as both finished with seven.

Next up for the Blackjacks will be a road matchup with Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley coming on Monday at 7:30 p.m. Leading up to the contest, Blackjacks coach Justin Wager hopes to improve their work on the boards.

“The biggest thing that we need to work on is rebounding,” said Wager. “Just having the attitude that we need to go get that ball every single time and the importance of getting more possessions.”

The Lakers will also be on the road for their next matchup coming on Tuesday with Russell-Tyler-Ruthton at 7:30 p.m. Unsure of the severity of Kiana Imes’ injury, coach Imes believes it may require other players on the roster to step into her role given her importance as a ball-handler and facilitator.

“We’ve got a big one against RTR for seeding purpose on Tuesday,” said Imes. “It’s all going to depend on the injury to Kiana, she’s obviously our main ballhandler and some of the other girls are going to have to step up and help. They all have the capability of doing it they just maybe don’t have the experience of having to do it yet so it’ll be interesting to see who steps up. Hopefully Kiana’s (Injury) is just a short injury.”