When Lake City head basketball coach Willie Thomas’s team found themselves down by nine in the opening minutes of Friday’s second-round playoff game against Swansea, he wasn’t overly concerned, he said.
That was despite his team’s apparent hangover after nearly giving up a 20-point lead in Tuesday’s first-round game against Darlington.
“We were taking some tight shots early on when we weren’t ready to,” Thomas said after Lake City’s 77-62 lower state playoffs win over Swansea. “I didn’t think we were in any real danger because I knew the shots would eventually fall, and they did.”
The shots began falling after those early minutes and continued to fall the rest of the game.
Five Panthers scored in double digits. Willis Flowers and Desmond Haygood both scored 14 points, with Haygood scoring 11 of his in the second half.
Dashawn Butler added 13 for Lake City, while Corey Baker scored 12 and Jeremi McCrea scored 10 points, eight of which came in the second half.
The win was Lake City’s 20th of the season.
“We always want to spread the scoring around,” Thomas said. “We tried banging it inside, but that wasn’t working early. These guys know that if someone isn’t having a good game and his shots aren’t falling, then someone else has to step up.”
Lake City missed its first six shots of the game and quickly found themselves down 8-0. Swansea extended its lead to 14-5 before the Panthers began chipping away and taking a 28-27 halftime lead.
“We knew at halftime as poorly as we played, we were in pretty good shape,” Thomas said. “That was a good sign for us.”
The Panthers used its pressure defense to create turnovers and its fast-break offense to break the game open in the third period, outscoring Swansea 22-6 to take a 50-33 lead going into the final period.
Lake City extended its lead to as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter. The Tigers had one more scoring run in them and cut the lead to 10, but were unable to get any closer.
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