Winston Academy traveled to Lamar on Tuesday night, but the Patriots were unable to get a victory over the Raiders. Lamar’s girls basketball team suffocated the Winston offense all game before securing a 58-25 victory, and the boys team outplayed Winston on both ends of the court en route to a 69-31 home win.

Lamar girls 58, Winston girls 25

Lamar’s full-court press defense shut down the Winston offense, holding the Patriots to three points in the first quarter and five in the second. The Raiders (13-8) put the game away by the third quarter after going into halftime up 36-8, and they eventually defeated the Patriots 58-25.

“Thought we played really well in the first quarter, got a big lead, but just put it in cruise and didn’t play hard the last three quarters,” Lamar coach Joe Miller said. “You want the kids to give it 100% all the time, but that’s not gonna always happen. But, we won, and it was a division game. We needed that.”

Miller said the game was ugly at times for the Raiders, but he will take an ugly win.

Up 28, Lamar was sluggish coming out of halftime. Winston took the opportunity to score 11 unanswered points and cut Lamar’s lead to 36-19, but the Raiders scored 14 straight from there to crush the Patriot comeback.

“We’ve got to learn to keep the throttle down and play better,” Miller said. “I’m happy with where we’re at. I’ve got great kids, they’re playing hard. We’ve just got to take care of some mistakes, and do a better job on layups, putbacks and free throws. We left too many easy buckets that we didn’t finish tonight.”

Blake Hart did not have much trouble shooting free throws and finishing around the basket, as she led the Raiders with 17 points. Aryah Grace chipped in 15 points and six rebounds.

“I thought we played well (on defense) in the first quarter, and I didn’t think we played well after that. That’s a lot to do with intensity, and we didn’t quite have it tonight,” Miller said.

Miller looks to Erica Smith and Sarah Dudley Reed to lead his defense. Dudley Reed is a two-way inside force who finished with a triple-double of 13 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks. Smith, who finished with 10 rebounds and three steals, is a speedy guard who uses her quickness to rack up steals in Miller’s press defense.

“Erica, who won the 100 meter dash in the state last year, is my quickest and fastest kid. Aryah makes the press go with her length on the ball, and then Erica has got the speed to make a steal,” Miller said.

Lamar’s defense and offense are both clicking at the right time, but the Raiders will need to finish games out with more energy when playoffs come around.

“We’re better than we played, and we know that,” Miller said. “From here you’ve got to get better. You’re three or four weeks to playoffs, you’ve got to get better every game, and we’ve been doing that. I didn’t think we did that tonight.”

Lamar boys 69, Winston boys 31

Raiders Addison Clodfelter (20 points) and Spence Hannigan (18 points) combined for more points than Winston Academy was able to put up in a 69-31 road loss at Lamar.

The Raiders (8-10) kept the Patriots at bay with stifling defense after holding them scoreless until the final seconds of the first quarter. Lamar never trailed, and Winston failed to mount any kind of comeback after going into the second quarter down 12-2.

At times, Lamar has struggled to hit easy shots under the basket in recent games, but Lamar coach Seth Cheatham said his team made those easy shots against Winston. The Raiders built up confidence in the first quarter with their 12-0 scoring run, and Cheatham said that ultimately propelled them forward to victory.

“I thought we did good,” Cheatham said. “We rebounded the ball, we made outside shots, made the plays we needed to, limited our turnovers.”

The Raiders typically play man-to-man, but they decided to switch into a zone defense against the Patriots. Led by Clodfelter and Cooper Gordy on the outside and Hannigan and Christian Chambers on the inside, Cheatham’s zone defense continuously disrupted the Patriots’ attack.

“Cooper Gordy, he’s basically a free safety out there. He does a great job reading, getting good deflections and steals. Addison also leads with his speed, so we’ve got two guards who’ve got some quickness to kind of create some chaos,” Cheatham said.

The Raiders have now won three straight since dropping to 0-4 to open district play.

“I think we played really well,” Clodfelter said. “We’re getting into the swing of things at the right time. Playoffs are about to happen, so we’re doing really good right now.”