Lake Region’s boys did everything in their power to thwart a top contender for the Class B basketball crown Tuesday night. And, for a half, that effort kept this building team in a game that probably should have slipped away in the first quarter.

Falmouth’s weapons were indeed too great and too many, and in the end the Yachtsmen left Lake Region’s gym with their seventh win this season in as many tries.

But despite the 63-47 loss, and an early 1-5 record, the Lakers were left with their hearts in place, and that’s what pleased first-year coach Mike Francoeur the most.

“I’m very, very proud of the boys,” said Francoeur. “I think they have made a vested interest in each other. And I think a lot of them are making sacrifices for our program. I’m real happy with the progress that we’ve made.”

A lot of that sacrifice came on the defensive side of the court, where the number-one daunting task was to stop Bryant Barr. The 6-foot-5 senior’s pure shooting touch was at its best early on, and he finished with 22 points, but the Lakers’ defense kept him off balance when the game could have gotten out of hand.

Several players were in charge of stopping Bryant, but much of that responsibility fell to Nick Mullins, who made sure he was at least an annoyance to the highly-touted Falmouth star.

Lake Region rewarded the faithful home crowd with an impressive show early, taking a 13-10 first-quarter lead, thanks much to the one-on-one play of Chris Shane.

Shane, who ended with a team-high 21 points, had eight in the first period, including a three-point play on a nice spin move inside and another athletic inside basket at the buzzer.

That lead slipped away though, thanks mostly to Bryant’s shooting touch, and the visitors escaped at the break with a 24-21 lead.

Philip Ellis, who ended with 18 points, started the third quarter with a three-point field goal to tie the game, 24-24, and played his best after the break. Kyle Holden gave the Lakers a little bit of height under the basket and the bench players pitched in where they could.

Todd Shigo continuously gave the Lakers a chance with his play at point guard, setting up plenty of decent looks offensively, but the home team couldn’t manage a steady offensive rhythm.

Francouer is hoping more players start contributing offensively – that seems to be the team’s biggest weakness – and there are a few who have shown flashes of a scoring touch. Shigo, Keegan Eldridge and Jake Moore each pitched in two points Tuesday.

It was, however, the Lakers defense that was most impressive for the home team against the Yachtsmen.

“Falmouth is a very, very strong program,” said Francouer. “But I think our kids showed up and showed everybody here we’re making strides.

“Against a team as good as this one, it’s kind of like playing with smoke and mirrors,” he said. “Once they figured out what we were trying to do – well, (Falmouth coach) Dave (Halligan), he’s a master over there.”

The Lakers kept forcing the Yachtsmen into different dimensions, but unfortunately for Francouer’s boys, their opponents were skilled in most of those dimensions and made the proper adjustments.

Guard Adam Packard scored when Bryant couldn’t and ended with 13 points, and down the stretch it was the contribution of big inside players Brady Frost (six points) and Ryan Gipson that made the difference on both ends of the court.

“I love our resilience,” Francoeur said. “The kids are coming and they’ll try anything. We’re 1-5 yet they don’t seem to be discouraged. Once we can get one, where the scoreboard reads we’re on the correct side, I think that we can do some damage against some teams in the league. Whether we can win, I don’t know, but certainly I’m real happy we’re competing.”

The coach added, “Other than the scoreboard, things are going great at Lake Region.”

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