MOUNT Gambier Lakers stood tall Saturday night against Limestone Coast rival Millicent Magic in Round 3 of the Country Basketball League.
The two sides faced off at the Icehouse, with a tough game ensuing, but in the end the Lakers blew the contest open in the third stanza to run out comfortable 100-76 victors.
Kane deWit was the star for the Lakers, draining five three-point bombs on his way to a game-high 34-point haul.
But he was closely followed by Magic’s Jordan Robertson, who reached his 29 points predominantly from two-point range, with just one free throw included.
However, the Magic had just two more players in double figures, while the Lakers saw an even contribution, with five players in total reaching that mark.
Matt Berkefeld opened proceedings on the scoreboard for the Lakers, with a two-point basket early in the contest, but Robertson responded for the Magic, with a pair of twos to take the lead.
Berkefeld then went to the charity stripe for a pair of successful free throws, before deWit found the first of his baskets to regain the lead.
But the Magic then went on a 12-0 run, opening the margin to 10, through twos from Cooper Hutchesson, Robertson and Josh Murphy, plus threes from Jed Telfer and Josh Berry.
The run put the Lakers on notice this was not going to be an easy game, with the response seeing deWit sinking a pair of twos and a three-point bucket to close the margin back down to three points.
With less than a minute remaining in the quarter deWit stepped up again, with a long bomb to close the gap to just one point at the first break.
From there an arm wrestle developed, with the game tied up mid-way through the second term, with Dellon Brown and Luke Atkinson adding threes to keep the home side in touch.
Robertson kept chipping away for the visitors, but a three to Zac deWit, followed by a two from Kane deWit again threatened to break the game open.
However, Telfer responded for the Magic with an outside shot of his own and by the long break the one-point lead had reverted to the Lakers.
The third term opened as the deWit show, with Kane fouled on his way to a successful two-point basket, adding the free throw for good measure, which was soon followed up by a three-point shot from Zach and the lead was out to seven in the blink of an eye.
Sam Stafford then completed a similar three-point play, with a two plus the “and 1” and suddenly the Magic were in trouble.
When Zach deWit and Berkefeld backed up with a pair of three-point bombs, the margin had crept out to 16 points on a 15-0 run and Millicent was struggling to keep pace.
In just three minutes of play the Lakers had broke the back of the Magic attack, with the visitors unable to come back.
The margin fluctuated for the remainder of the game, but Millicent was never back in the contest.
By the final break the lead had skipped out to 19 points and the Lakers cruised to victory.
In the wash up for the Lakers, Kane deWit’s 34 points was complemented by Zach deWit’s 15, Atkinson and Stafford with 11 each and Berkefeld with 10.
For the Magic Robertson’s 29 was comfortably ahead of Murphy’s 17 and Telfer’s 11.
After three rounds of competition the Lakers sit second behind Colac Kookas, both on two wins, with the Magic in third place, the only other side to have claimed a win so far.
