Camden ends Lake City’s season

CAMDEN — In home wins over Darlington and Swansea, Lake City had very little trouble scoring in the first two rounds of the Class 3A boys basketball playoffs, especially from 3-point range.

The road rims were unkind to the Panthers in Camden. Lake City faltered from the field and from the foul line in an 89-68 loss that sent the Panthers home wondering what went wrong.

The Panthers came into the contest averaging 82 points per game in their first two postseason victories. Despite getting four players in double figures, Lake City was held 14 points under its playoff average.

Corey Baker led the Panthers with 13 points. Desmond Haygood and Dashawn Butler each added 11 points, and Shonquez Nelson 10.

According to Lake City coach Willie Thomas, foul shooting was key to his team’s demise. The Panthers hit only five of their 14 attempts from the line, while Camden made 13 of 16.

“Even shooting the way we shot in the game, that wasn’t indicative of the outcome,” said Thomas, whose squad finished the season 20-8. “We shot really poorly from the free-throw line and we didn’t rebound.

“We got to the line but we couldn’t make a free throw, and that really affects your defensive setups. You can’t win like that.”

The Bulldogs came out firing in the first period, hitting their first five shots. Jay Council opened the game with back-to-back 3-pointers and Camden (22-2) followed his lead en route to a 23-15 advantage entering the second quarter.

“That’s what it takes to beat a team as good as Lake City,” Camden coach Ron McKie said. “We had to be aggressive and not get gunshy. We did a good job of that tonight.”

Lake City, on the other hand, was taken out of its up-tempo game early in the first half by Camden’s athleticism. Forced to play a half-court set, the Panthers committed eight turnovers and connected on just three of their 12 3-point attempts.

Despite its erratic shooting, Lake City twice trimmed the deficit to five points and trailed 36-29 at halftime.

The Panthers had several chances to cut into Camden’s advantage in the third quarter but still had problems making shots. Even uncontested layups from within five feet proved to be a challenge.

“Our game plan was to stay in a zone as long as we could withstand their outside shooting,” McKie said. “They didn’t hit their outside shots, so it didn’t hurt us as much.”

Everik Gary had no such trouble. The senior nailed consecutive 3s as part of an 8-3 run to hand the Bulldogs a 55-45 lead after 24 minutes.

Everik Gary helped the contest got out of hand in the final period. Missed shots and turnovers turned into easy layups and dunks for him and his teammates as Camden rolled to the final tally.

Gary finished with 20 points, 19 in the second half.

“(Gary) is a really good player,” Thomas said. “He was a tough matchup for us.”

“I thought he looked to pass the ball a little too much in the first half,” McKie said. “We challenged him at halftime to shoot it more, and he stepped up.”

Josh Council led all scorers with 30 points for Camden and Jay Council added 21.

“The best way to play (the Bulldogs) is to zone them because they’re physically stronger than us,” Thomas said. “Plus, they got a lot of offensive rebounds against us tonight.”