Basketball Recap: Lake County Comes Up Short

Lake County played a tough contest on Tuesday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They were beaten by the Middle Park Panthers 88-52. While losing is never fun, Lake County can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Colorado basketball rankings (they are ranked 192nd, while Middle Park is ranked 43rd).

Despite the loss, Lake County still got an impressive performance from Jaren Peters, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and 15 rebounds. Those 15 rebounds gave Peters a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Devyn Sterkel, who posted 13 points.

Even though they lost, Lake County smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 18 offensive rebounds. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Middle Park only pulled down five offensive boards.

Joey Gagnon continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Middle Park, going 6 of 13 on his way to 19 points in addition to seven assists and seven boards. The team also got some help courtesy of Luke Paugh, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds.

This is the second loss in a row for Lake County and nudges their season record down to 2-6. As for Middle Park, their win was their fifth straight on the road dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 5-2.

After both having extra time off, Lake County and Englewood will dust off their jerseys to face off against one another at 7:00 p.m. on January 7, 2025. Lake County is facing Englewood at the right time seeing as Englewood is stuck on a three-game losing streak. As for Middle Park, they wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next match, a 74-43 victory against Battle Mountain on the 19th.