Lakeland Gears Up for Tournament with 52-40 Victory

will go into the Kensington Lakes conference tournament Thursday on a three-game winning streak following a 52-40 non-conference victory over Wayne Memorial Monday in White Lake on Senior Night.

The Eagles (9-7) scored 36 first-half points in taking a 16-point lead. Ryan Zukowski and Chuck Sanders led a balanced scoring attack with nine points each and Taylor Wattles added seven. Nine players in all scored for Lakeland.

“I think we’re peaking at the right time because we’ve been able to get some transition baskets and have been executing better on offense,” said Lakeland head coach Bob Brugger. “We did get into a period in the third quarter where we got careless with the ball and nearly let them back into the game, but it was a very solid first half.”

The Eagles will face Brighton in the first round of the KLAA North tournament Thursday at home. Brighton is one of the top seeds and defeated Lakeland 55-53 in White Lake back in December. Brugger spent one year in 2009-2010 as the head coach at Brighton before returning to Lakeland last offseason.

“They are easily the best on-the-ball defensive team we have faced this year so we are going to have to handle their ball pressure,” Brugger said. “That’s what we are going to be working on in practice the next couple of days. If we do break their ball pressure we have the opportunity to get some easy points.”

After Monday's game Brugger spoke about each of his seniors who were honored that night:

Ryan Zukowski - “He’s been our leader and is very talented offensively. When he plays well we are very tough to beat.” 

Cam Kalinski - “Cam is a great on-the-ball defender and a hard-nosed kid. He almost single-handedly won us the first game we played against Waterford Mott this season.” 

Joey Rossi - “Lately Joey has been playing great. He has battled through a shooting slump for a good portion of this season but I expect him to knock shots down the rest of this year.”

Nick Furry - “He’s going to make a great head basketball coach someday. Nick has great basketball instincts and is one of those guys who is proud to wear a Lakeland uniform.” 

Taylor Wattles - “I have to say he’s a warrior. He does all the dirty work under the boards and has all the intangibles you need to win. He’s a tough kid and a great athlete.” 

Ty Bouwens - “He’s another guy who does all the intangible things for us. Ty is extremely disciplined. He’s a player I wish all of our freshmen and sophomores would emulate.” 

Sean Hollowell - “Sean is a great program kid. He does everything he can in practice to make his teammates better. It’s hard to find kids like him these days.”