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The Lakeland Lancers avenged their shocking loss to the Butler Bulldogs early in the season by winning the boys' basketball rematch on their home court. Lakeland's shooting was superb tonight as the team kept up its recent hot streak. After opening the high school winter sports season with eleven straight defeats, the Lancers have now won three of their last four.
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The game was scrappy for the first couple of minutes until Lancers coach Bill Conlee called a time out. Whatever he said in the huddle was motivating enough, propelling his team to a quick 10 point and control of the game. The Bulldogs had an answer scoring on some nice basketball movement and made it a game, but the Lancers has a quick spur with a 5-0 run and took a 17-10 lead to end the 1st period.
Butler seemed the more aggressive team to start the second period, cutting the lead again this time to three points. That would be the closest the Bulldogs would get simply because the Lancers were on fire and shots just kept going in. Consequently, the Lancers built a comfortable lead with a 9-0 run taking a 37-25 lead at the halfway mark.
The Lancers came out from the halftime break without a warm up. It turned out they didn't need it. Halfway into the third quarter they had built a 20-point lead by playing great defense and draining shot after shot. The Bulldogs really were outperformed at both ends of the court. And, it was evident by now that the Lancers were on their way to victory.
The fourth quarter saw the Lancers moving the basketball around taking time off the clock. This was a great win all around and gives the Lancers some momentum going into a matchup with North Jersey superpower Paterson Catholic High School this Saturday in the first round on the county tournament.
Coach Conlee is pleased about how much improvement his team has shown in the last four games. “We are moving the ball well and our shooting has been great." The Lancers hope to move closer to the .500 mark by the end of the hoops season, but Conlee already has an eye on next year for his young squad. -- Emir Liguori for Jersey Sports Now
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