“It was magical to be here, but it just makes me want it more,” said junior point guard AJ Bates. “Not a lot of Seven Lakes teams have done, I wish we could have gone further, but this whole experience, from on the court to the support of our fans and everyone, it meant everything.”
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It’s been a record setting year for Seven Lakes.
The Spartans had a special group, a group that broke the schools single season wins record, won a district title, went on a winning streak that lasted over three months.
Seven Lakes was on a mission to make history and did that all season, but in the end fell short of their ultimate goals, as the Spartans season came to an end on Friday night with an 83-70 loss to Clear Falls in the Class 6A Region III Semifinal.
“They were just a special group, they did so many amaing things this year,” said Seven Lakes head coach Shannon Heston. “This year is going to live in Spartan basketball history, they battled all year. I just feel bad for the guys right now because it’s not the result we wanted. But Clear Falls is a fantastic team, they were here for a reason, they played incredible tonight, but I’m just so proud of all of our guys for everything this year.”
Seven Lakes and Clear Falls went back and forth through the first quarter. The Spartans got out to an early lead but the Knights battled back to tie things late in the first quarter, until EJ Sparks gave Seven Lakes a 21-18 lead at the end of the first, hitting a corner three as the clock expired.
Clear Falls came out strong in the second quarter, getting their offense going and building a five point lead, but Seven Lakes came back to tie things late in the quarter, but the Knights still led 36-35 going into the half.
“It was magical to be here, but it just makes me want it more,” said junior point guard AJ Bates. “Not a lot of Seven Lakes teams have done, I wish we could have gone further, but this whole experience, from on the court to the support of our fans and everyone, it meant everything.”
Seven Lakes was unable to keep momentum going into the third quarter, the Spartans offense sputtered and couldn’t keep up with the Knights, as Josh Moore scored 11 points in the quarter and Seven Lakes went down by 58-51 after three.
Clear Falls then build up an 11 point lead in the fourth, before Seven Lakes tried to mount a comeback, but the Knights got buckets when they needed them and nailed their free throws down the stretch to seal the game.
“From the beginning we knew that this was a special team,” Bates said. “It’s not the way we wanted to finish things, but I’m proud of all my guys from the first one to the last one, all of the seniors to the sophomores. This whole season was magical, I’m sad it’s over with but we’re going to keep working.”
The loss ended a 26 game winning streak for the Spartans that dated back to the beginning of December. They will graduate six players from this team, but will bring back many talented players next year as they look to build on one of the programs most successful years ever.
“It’s about improving them both on and off the court,” Heston said. “We’re going to get one perfect better every day and work on being better every day off the court as well. They’re all riven and passionate and we are going to harness that and help them grow and get even better.”
Class 6A Regional Semifinal
Clear Falls 83, Seven Lakes 70
Points: (SL) AJ Bates 24, Josh Akpovwa 15, Brett Norton 10, Nasir Price 8, EJ Sparks 6, Tillman Jaramillo 6, Nathan Nguyen 1; (CF) Orlando Horton 28, Josh Moore 18, Corey Kelly 13, Javon Murray 9, Prince Hegwood 6, Kenye Yzquierdo 5, Caden Steward 4;
Halftime: Clear Falls 36-35; 3-Pointers: (SL) Bates 3, Jaramillo 2, Sparks 2; (CF) Moore 3, Horton 2, Murray; Records: Seven Lakes 34-5, Clear Falls 28-7;