Lake Land basketball preview

A big weekend will highlight the Lake Land College women’s basketball team as the Lakers will participate in the Triton College Classic. That features a matchup with Division I program Triton College and a former Region 4 champion in Moraine Valley. 

Here is the preview of this weekend’s games. 

Team Records: 

Nov. 11: Lake Land College (2-0) vs. Triton College (1-0)

Nov. 12: Lake Land College (2-0) vs. Moraine Valey Community (1-2)

Where: Triton College 

Tickets: Tickets can be purchased at Triton College

Tip-Off: 7:30 p.m. vs. Triton College; 1 p.m. vs. Moraine Valley Community

Opponent’s Past Results: Triton College owns one win on the season. The team defeated the College of DuPage, 66-36, last Saturday. A game against Kennedy-King College was postponed. Moraine began the season with a 59-36 loss to Parkland College and then lost to Lincoln Land Community College, 67-51. The team picked up their first win over Malcolm X College, 94-89, on Tuesday. 

Triton’s Top Players: Triton is looking to reclaim the Region 4 title in 2022-23. Triton guard Monraia Wilson is pegged as an early leader of this team, who were 23-5 last season. Wilson will be joined by third-year starter Linary’s Brunett-Romero and local star Destine Lovette. Top recruit Trinty Barnes is regarded highly on offense. 

Moraine’s Top Players: The team brings back third-year guard Reagan Cameron, who completed her first season on the women’s tennis team, helping the squad win a Region IV title and an Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference championship. Sophomore guard Mary Chonopoulou is a returning contributor as well as sophomore center Larisa Milenkovski, who is back after a significant injury last year. Two players transferred that have high expectations in Autumn Jones and Aden Edebali. 

Lake Land’s Past Results: Lake Land defeated Crowder College, 70-66, to start the season. Olivia Niemerg led the team in scoring with 17 points, while Lexi Niebrugge added 15 points. Ali Watson scored 12 points to round out the double-digit scorers. Last Saturday, Lake Land romped past North Arkansas College, 66-41. Four players scored double-digits in that game, led by Ali Watson’s 15. Niemerg scored another 10 and also snagged 10 rebounds. 

What Lake Land Said: “Triton is a Division team with really good athletes,” said Lake Land coach Dave Johnson. “They play fast on the offensive and attack the basket well. They play a very aggressive half-court trapping defense. They had four players score in double figures in their first game. Moraine is an inexperienced team that can be dangerous on and off with an abundance of shooters. Play a ton of 2-3 zone. We would like to continue to push the ball offensively this weekend and work on our transition offense into good quick half-court sets.   We will get to work against pressure which will be good for us. Defensively, we’re going to have to be good on Friday at taking away the dribble attack and then on Saturday we will need to have good closeouts to take away 3-point looks.”