One up, one down on the hardwood

The Lake Orion girls? basketball team improved to a school-record 11-0 start, while the boys? team saw their 19-game league win streak come to a close in a week highlighted by the first varsity doubleheader in the LOHS gym.
The girls? opened the doubleheader against Troy Athens with a 58-34 OAA crossover victory, led by Courtney Zott’s 20 points. Bethany Watterworth added 13 points, nine rebounds and five steals for the Dragons.
Lake Orion turned an eight-point halftime edge into a comfortable double-digit lead in the third quarter, one which saw Zott score 13 points. Kelly Bruggeman scored 14 points in defeat for Athens, which fell to 4-7.
The Dragons continued their record-breaking pace Thursday night, routing visiting Farmington Hills Harrison 57-18 in an OAA III contest.
The team improved to 5-0 in league action with the win.
Cortney Kimmel led all scorers with 11 points, and the Dragon defense held Harrison to just five points over the entire second and third quarters.
The team hosts Southfield Lathrup on Friday at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile, the boys got off to a rough start and could never recover, falling 44-33 in the second leg of last Tuesday’s doubleheader, which was also an OAA II contest.
Athens led 13-1 late in the first quarter before Reed Losee scored LO’s first field goal in the final five seconds. Lake Orion trailed by nine at the break and never got much closer than that in the second half.
The league loss was Lake Orion’s first since February of 2006, when they were a member of the OAA III. They won the league that year, then went undefeated in the OAA II last season. At 4-1 in league play this season, they still sit atop the league standings.
‘It’s a little bit different playing with the target on your back,? Coach Jim Manzo said. ‘We worried about a letdown after the Clarkston game. We spotted them nine-points early and didn’t have enough gas in the tank at the end.?
Drew Maynard scored 10 to lead the Dragons. Athens? Bob Rodgers led all scorers with 11 points. The Red Hawks improved to 2-2 in league action (and 3-4 overall).
Lake Orion fell 81-72 at Pontiac Northern on in a crossover game last Friday night.
Maynard led the Dragons with 23 points, while Northern’s Isaiah Phlegm led all scorers with 24.
Northern improved to 5-4 with the win, while Lake Orion fell to 4-5, with a trip to Romeo that took place after this edition went to press.
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