Basketball Recap: Pender Drops Season-High Score on Lakewood

Patriots

Team Score

01/13/25 @ Lakewood	59
01/06/25 @ Red Springs	58
12/28/24 @ Hobbton	56
12/19/24 vs Lakewood	49
01/03/25 @ East Bladen	47

Pender scored the most points they've had this season on Monday, but it wasn't enough. They took a 70-59 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Lakewood Leopards. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Monday (58), the Patriots still had to take the loss.

Pender lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Malcolm Driver, who posted 15 points and five rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Jordan Hansley, who earned four points along with eight assists and three blocks.

Leading Lakewood to victory were Xavier Hall and Jaziah Brunson. Hall almost dropped a double-double on 20 points and nine boards, while Brunson went 8 of 11 on his way to 17 points and five assists. Hall is crushing it when it comes to boards: he's pulled down at least nine every time he's taken the court this season. Another player making a difference was Cameron Williams, who went 8 of 15 on his way to 18 points and six rebounds.

Pender's defeat dropped their record down to 2-6. As for Lakewood, they pushed their record up to 8-1 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home.

Pender will take on Whiteville at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Whiteville will roll in looking for their sixth straight win, something Pender surely won't give up without a fight. As for Lakewood, they won't have much time to rest: their next game is against Union at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Lakewood is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 59.6 points per game this season.