LAKEWOOD — The Lakewood Cougars girls basketball team hosted King’s on Friday, Jan. 25, but couldn’t keep pace with the powerful Knights who walked away with a 70-37 victory.

“Even though King’s is a 1A team, they are really tough,” said Cougar Head Coach Chris Walster.

King’s started the game strong on both ends of the court, jumping out to a 27-1 lead.

“They came out with a full-court press which is one thing, as a young group, that we don’t handle that well right now,” said Walster. “We finished with two 3-pointers from Hayley Senyitko to close out the first quarter with a score of 29-7.”

In the second quarter, both teams scored 13 points to end the first half with a score of 42-20.

In the third quarter, King’s dropped in 12, while the Cougars hit for 8 points. King’s scored 16 in the final quarter while Lakewood scored 9 points.

“The girls played really hard the whole game,” said Walster. “Marissa Blair and Hayley Senyitko were again our leading scorers.”

Blair hit for 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, while Senyitko scored 12 points.

“All the girls played hard the entire game,” said Walster.

Despite the loss, Walster said he is proud of the progress his young team — which starts three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior — has made this year.

“This team has absolutely progressed throughout the season,” said the coach. “With so many freshmen, we knew this was going to be a learning year. In the end, we are a young team coming off a 2-18 season last year that hopes to finish this year with 8 wins, which is a great improvement.”

After the loss, Lakewood’s record stood at 3-9 in the  conference and 7-11 overall.

On Tuesday, Jan. 29, Lakewood played at Sultan but the results weren’t available by press time. For the final game of the regular season, the Cougars will host Cedarcrest on Friday, Feb. 1, beginning at 7 p.m.