Basketball Recap: Lakewood Comes Up Short

Lakewood was not able to break out of their rough patch on Wednesday as the team picked up their 12th straight loss dating back to last season. They were dealt a 70-29 defeat at the hands of the Arvada West Wildcats. While losing is never fun, the Tigers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 265th, while the Wildcats are ranked 17th).

Despite the loss, Lakewood saw an underclassman step up: sophomore Marcus Bane went 7 of 15 en route to 19 points. Those 19 points set a new season-high mark for Bane. Tarvaris Johnson also deserves some recognition as he grabbed his first steal of the season.

Arvada West's win was a true team effort, with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Jordan Stremel, who went 5 for 9 on his way to 14 points in addition to seven assists and five steals. The dominant performance gave Stremel a new career-high in assists. Another player making a difference was Keegen Balistreri, who went 8 of 14 en route to 17 points and seven rebounds.

Lakewood's defeat dropped their record down to 0-11. As for Arvada West, they pushed their record up to 10-2 with the victory, which was their sixth straight on the road dating back to last season.

Lakewood has already played their next game (against Chatfield), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing. Arvada West didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next match, an 85-40 win against Bear Creek on the 17th.