2009-2010 Lady Lakers
Front Row: Zipporah Tidwell, Aslea Williams, Jasmine Frierson, Dominique Wright, SirShawna Dowdy, Tiara Roberts, Daniel Lewis, Sierra Morris, Aysia Mickles-Turner and Vynetta Crider
Back Row: Assistant Coach La'Shawn Bradley, Head Coach Gary Hicks, Assistant Coach Marques Evans
Pages for this season are currently under construction. Check back for changes and additions.
November 18, 2009
The Lady Lakers knocked another team from the ranks of the unbeaten with their 77-59 win over Erie Community College.
Guard Danielle Lewis played a strong 35 minutes as she picked the Kats for five steals, dished out five assists and scored ten points. The diminutive Lewis even managed to grab seven rebounds.
The Lakers were led by Aslea Williams who scored 22 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Williams was eight for fourteen from the floor and six for seven from the line.
Asia Mickles-Turner had eleven points, Zipporah Tidwell had nine and Tiara Roberts and Sierra Morris each had eight.
The ladies will take their 6-1 record to Monroe Community College this weekend for a two game tournament.
November 14, 2009
The Lady Lakers beat Genesse Community College 86-81 to raise their record to 5-1. The Genesse Cougars were ranked 13th by the NJCAA coming into the game, and were the second nationally ranked team that the Lakers have beaten in this season. 
The Cougars had no answer for sophomore Aslea Williams. She dominated the boards with 18 rebounds; controlled the paint with three blocks; was near perfect from the charity stripe, making ten of eleven; and was solid inside, converting on nine of fifteen shots; for 28 points.
Fellow sophomore Tiara Roberts also scored a double/double for the Lakers, with ten points and twelve rebounds.
Both teams started the game with a full-court press, which led to some sloppy play at the outset. When Lakeland converted off a SirShawna Dowdy steal at the top of the arc, eight minutes into the game, the Lakers took a bit of control at 23-16.
Both teams pulled off their presses, but the Cougars continued to aggressively go after the ball, which gave the Lakers several wide open passes and easy inside baskets.
When the Lakers ran their offense, they were able to get the ball down low to Williams who used her spin move to out maneuver two, and sometimes three, defenders.
The Lakers took a 47-39 lead into half-time, but the Cougars were far from finished.
Genesse came out with an 8-2 run after the break, before the Lakers were able to get their offense back on track with a Roberts drive to the hole. The Lakers continued to move the ball and use a combination of drives to the basket and inside passes to frustrate the Cougars.
A pair of Genesse technical fouls allowed the Lakers to pull it out to a ten point lead, but the Cougars came fighting back. By the ten minute mark, it was again a two point game, and the fouls were piling up for both teams.
Coach Gary Hicks slowed down the Lakers’ offense, but both teams seemed to stall out with the slow down and the score remained 70-67, Lakers, for several minutes.
Genesse pulled within one to make it 70-69, when they scored off an inbounds play. Sophomore forward Zipporah Tidwell was fouled going to the hole and made one of her subsequent free throws.
The Cougar’s Kristie Laurey then came back with a short jumper to tie it at 71, before Tidwell was fouled again going inside. Tidwell converted the three point play to make it 74-71 Lakers.
On the Lakers’ next possession a missed three resulted in a Williams’ rebound and put back. The Lakers went up 76-71 with about three and half minutes left, and the teams exchanged baskets and fouls shots the rest of the way.
The Cougars fell to 1-2. They had five players score in double figures.
The Lakers dominated the boards, out-rebounding the Cougars 58-34. Tidwell had 17 points and SirShawna Dowdy contributed 13. Sierra Norris and Danielle Lewis each tossed in eight.
Next up for the Lady Lakers will be Erie County Community College on Wednesday, November 18th at 5:30. This is a home contest, where admission is always free.
OCCAC Honors
Congratulations to Zipporah Tidwell who was named an OCCAC Academic Award winner for the 2008-09 school year.
Shyla Jones was named to the All-OCCAC second team, while teammates Aslea Williams and Caprita Bell received honorable mentions.
Congratulations to Shyla Jones who will continue her playing career at West Virginia Technical College.
Congratulations to STAR STUDENTS Shyla Jones and Zipporah Tidwell. They each achieved a GPA of 3.0 or above for the spring semester.
May 17, 2009
Gary Hicks has been named the new women’s basketball coach at Lakeland Community College. Coach Hicks has spent two years as an assistant in the college’s men’s basketball program, but is eager to make the transition to women’s ball.
As an educator, Hicks has worked with females and female athletes. He has also coached girls at summer camps and in recreation leagues.
“Female basketball players tend to pay more attention to the details and the fundamentals than the guys do,” says Hicks. “I am looking forward to working with them in a college setting. I have a good nucleus of returning players, so I definitely have something I can build on.”
Since Hicks still has some recruiting to do before the next school year begins, he will be on the lookout for student athletes who want to be at Lakeland.
“I want them to be interested in being in the classroom, as well as being on the court,” said Hicks. He intends to build his program around the talent that he has each year.
“There is no point in building an offense around the fast break, if I don’t have the personnel to run it,” says Hicks. As a former post player himself, he likes an inside-outside game.
“I like to start big and then branch out,” he says. “But again, if I don’t have the personnel to play that way, we will adjust to the talent we have. However, I do like kids who like to play defense.”
Hicks intends to look for players “wherever there are kids putting a ball in a hoop.” He also plans to bring in a few more local athletes. To that end, he hopes to add a former area player to his coaching staff as well as a player with Division I college and professional experience. Those individuals are still going through Lakeland’s hiring process.
“I have begun working my network to find a few players that may have slipped through the cracks this year,” said Hicks. “It takes a bit of time to grow a program, but I am up for the challenge.”
Athletic director Scott Barlow is satisfied with the in-house promotion of Hicks. “We are happy to have Gary Hicks step into a head coaching position here at Lakeland. He is familiar with what we are, and where we want to go. He brings the talent, background and experience that we need to take our program to new heights.”
Hicks is employed at Bellefaire School in University Heights and is pursuing a teaching certificate in Special Education at Notre Dame College. He played basketball and is a graduate of California University in Pennsylvania and also attended and played at Cuyahoga Community College.
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