The Lakers entered Sunday ready for the second half of a back to back versus the Mighty Oaks of Oakland City. Wright State Lake came into the game with a renewed energy and tweaked game plan and found themselves in control of the game for the entire first half. The first half though back and forth the Lakers answered every run the Mighty Oaks had and was able to hold the lead for much of the first half. Jordan Gorman and Isaac Clay made consistently made big shots in the first half. Isaac led the Lakers scoring 15 of his 19 points in the first half. The road team defense was sharp after allowing over 50% shooting in the first game the Lakers held the Mighty Oaks to only 38% in the first half. At the break the Lakers took a 38-35 lead, after Oakland City hit a buzzer beating put back to cut the Lakers lead to three.

In the second half the Lakers were started fast and continued to look to control tempo. The back and forth game continued through second half, but after the under 16 media timeout the Mighty Oaks went on a 26-8 run to distance themselves from the Lakers. The Lakers compounded mistakes with shot selection and turnovers as the Mighty Oaks outworked the road team during their big run. The Lakers were on wrong end of fouls in the second half as they were called for 11 fouls compared to the Mighty Oaks 2 fouls. The Lakers would ultimately fall 77-61. Despite the score the game was very competitive as it had 10 lead changes and 6 ties through the forty minutes.

Inside the Box Score:

• This was the Lakers 13th financial guarantee game of the season
• Jordan Gorman and Isaac Clay combined to score 30 of the 61 points for the Lakers
• Hustle Point: After winning the hustle points in the first half, the Mighty Oaks controlled the hustle points for the game 26 points off turnovers and second chance compared to the Lakers 21 points.
• Battle of the Free Throw Line: the Lakers went 8-8 from the free throw line while the Mighty Oaks went 18-21 from the FT line.

What Coach Says:

Coach Westerlund said this about the game, "We played a great first twenty minutes of basketball. We competed and had tremendous energy in the first half and the scoreboard rewarded us with that. Unfortunately it takes 40 minutes of basketball. I told our guys this we are inches not miles away from being able to win these type of games. We will go as our guards go, in the first half our guards were on fire and in the second half they went a little cold. We need other guys to be able to step up when they go cold. I was really happy with the way Jahod Lang played today. I thought especially in the first half his energy was tremendous. Chaz Painter also did a great job on the boards." On playing financial guarantee games, "These are a necessity for our program to be able to allow us to do the things we want to do, but I thought despite us not winning a buy game this season our guys proved we can play at a high level this season when we are locked in. I believe we can learn from the lessons we had this season and go into next season ready to win these buy games. They also help prepare us for conference play, which I believe they did well this year as we are 6-2 in conference." On the last three games of the season, "We still have so much to play for in these last three games. I am excited for us to get back on the practice floor tomorrow and be ready to have a big week of basketball. We must continue to embrace the process and have a 1-0 mentality."

Who's Next:

The Lakers take on The Ohio State University Lima on Tuesday February 13th. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30pm.