Estherville, IA- The Iowa Lakes Men's Basketball season came to an end this weekend when they fell to NJCAA 5th ranked Macomb 92-86.
The Lakers who went 1-2 at the tournament would take on defending National Champion Milwaukee Area Technical College. The Lakers would fall 90-73.
The Lakers were led by Jaedan Jefferson with 21 points, Sam West and Kai Evans added 12, and Blake Kooiman had 10.
Milwaukee was led by Qi'Andre Washington who had 18 points.
Laker Head Coach Jason McKinney had this to say about the game. "Really good to start the game but the injury to Benard really changed how things went. After he went down, we really did not give our best effort on the defensive end of the floor. My heart really hurts for them tonight. I firmly believe it he doesn't get hurt we have a chance to win the whole tournament.
After the loss to Milwaukee the Lakers would jump to the consolation side of the tournament where they could still compete for a 7th place finish.
In their first round of the consolation tournament the Lakers would take on Monroe Community College. The Lakers would knock off Monroe 78-60.
The Lakers were led by Blake Kooiman with 20 points. Kai Evans added 16 points, Jaedan Jefferson chipped in with 13, and Sam West and Ashton Hermann each had 10.
Monroe was led by Terrell Williams with 19 points.
"Really proud of our guy's effort today. Coming off what happened to Benard and us being in the consolation bracket it could of went the other way. We competed and rebound the ball well. " Said Laker Head Coach Jason McKinney.
After the first-round consolation win, the Laker would advance to take on Macomb. The Lakers would fall to Macomb.
In the contest the Lakers would be led by Blake Kooiman with 18 points, Jhordan Ryan would add 16 points, Jaedan Jefferson would add 15 points, and Kai Evans and Sam West would each add 14 points.
Macomb was led by Juwan Maxey with 27 points.
Laker Head Men's Basketball Coach Jason McKinney had this to say about the game. "We couldn't get any stops and we couldn't make any free throws. We used a lot of energy to get back into the game and just didn't have enough fire power to finish it off."
The Lakers finished the year 27-9 and 14-4 in Iowa Community College Athletic Conference play.