LAKEVILLE — Senior Caiden Cyr’s last second three-point attempt fell just short as the Joseph Case High School Cardinals defeated the Apponequet Regional High School Lakers 56-53 on Tuesday, Jan. 2. Cyr led the Lakers with 15 points.

In a back-and-forth game at the Apponequet Regional High School gym, Case Senior Landon Cayton scored 24 points, including eight of his team’s final nine points in the fourth quarter to secure the victory for the Cardinals.

Free throws proved to be a challenge in crunch time for the Lakers. In the fourth quarter, Apponequet shot just 4-10 from the free throw line after making seven of their eight free throw attempts in the game’s first three quarters.

“In tight games you have to hit free throws,” said Apponequet Head Coach Jim Cabucio. “They hit more down the stretch than we did. They took advantage of their opportunities and we didn’t so we’ll give Case a lot of credit for that.

“We were just sloppy all around on offense,” said Apponequet Senior Nathan Levesque. “We have to find ways to put the ball in the hoop and score more than 53 points.”

Levesque, a 6’4” forward, controlled the interior for the Lakers on defense, blocking multiple Case shots and pulling down 11 rebounds after being called for two fouls early in the first half.

“[Levesque] has been a rebounding machine,” said Cabucio. “He’s athletic, a competitor and he wants to win.”

After allowing 33 points in the first half, Cabucio changed his strategy, turning from a man-to-man defense to a zone defense.

The change worked initially: the Lakers allowed just eight third quarter points and five in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, but Cayton took over the game in the remaining three minutes, and scored eight points on his own.

With the game tied at 46 and three minutes to play, Cayton found the bottom of the net from three-point range to give Case a 49-46 lead. With the game tied once again at 51-51 and under a minute to play, Cayton gave his team the lead with yet another important basket, making the score 53-51.

Trailing by three with five seconds left in the game, Apponequet had to travel the length of the court for a chance to send the game to overtime. Cyr managed to release a heavily defended three-point attempt which bounced off the rim as the final buzzer sounded.

The loss drops the Lakers’ record to 3-3 this season. Their next game will be away at Dighton-Rehoboth on Tuesday, Jan. 9, which Cabucio said would likely be another tough matchup.