From the News Sun paper

published: Friday, November 21, 2008
Lake Placid Outruns Walker Academy
By DONALD RIDGEWAY
News-Sun sportswriter
LAKE PLACID - In what looked to be a defensive battle, Lake Placid turned a three-point lead heading into the fourth quarter into a 52-35 win over the visiting Walker Academy Lady Eagles.
Both teams played very physical, but the speed of the Dragons proved to be too much for Walker at the end.
"I liked how we played tonight," Green Dragon head coach Shondra Legree said. "We put in the press tonight and the girls picked it up and we got some turnovers out of it. We moved the ball well and made some layups which is something we didn't do Tuesday night."
In the opening period, Lake Placid raced out to a strong start but it was the play of Blair Walz who kept the game close as she drained two three pointers.
"Blair makes our team go," commented Walker Academy head coach Bill Farmer. "She is an excellent ball handler and when she is on, this team is on. She is a good barometer of how our team is going to do."
Lake Placid had big play in the paint from freshman Jamaica Gayle who had six points along with Sierra Weaver who had six of her own. At the end of the first quarter Lake Placid was up 18-11.
"I talked to Jamacia and Sierra the other day in practice about refusing to get beat on the boards," said Legree."They came out and won things under the basket and it really helped us."
Refusing to be outplayed, the scrappy Eagle squad fought back, pulling to within one as they headed into intermission.
Walker Academy used a stingy defense that forced several Green Dragon turnovers and got strong play on offense from Megan Bedell who had five points while Rach Reid and Kristelle Lagaron added two buckets each.
Weaver managed to get some nice shots inside, however, as she picked up four points to lead the home team.
Despite the strong defensive effort, Lake Placid managed to extend their one point halftime lead to 33-30 as they headed into the fourth quarter.
Then Kaneisha Hamilton got hot, putting in a couple buckets while also forcing three steals on defense.
The fourth quarter was all Lake Placid as they raced to the win down the stretch.
"We still need to work on our conditioning," commented Farmer. "We just ran out of gas here at the end. We need these types of games since we are so young."
Lake Placid was lead on the court by Weaver who finished the game with 16 points along with five rebounds, six blocks, and two steals.
Other big play came from Gayle who closed out the game with 11 points along with eight boards, Hamilton who had 12 points and Wilson who had 10.