Playing at home, Saranac Lake fell 70-46 to Ticonderoga in Champlain Valley Athletic Conference.

The Red Storm trailed 18-13 after the opening period, but the Sentinels quickly stretched their lead to double digits early in the second quarter before carrying a 39-24 advantage into halftime.

“We got beat by a better basketball team, and I don’t mind that because our kids played hard,” Red Storm coach Dermott Morgan said. “I knew going in that we would struggled on offense, but we could have played better defense.”

Senior Jacob Shipman paced Saranac Lake as the game’s leading scorer, dumping in a season-high 24 points. The effort marked the fourth straight game that Shipman finished in double figures.

Lake Placid’s Justin Williams fires up a shot during Tuesday night’s game against Johnsburg. He scored his first varsity basket in the game. (Provided photo — Alicia Brandes)

Almin Cirikovic knocked down a pair of three-pointers to finish with six points in the loss, James Catania added five points, while Red Storm teammates Dylan Stewart and Zach Churco chipped in four points each.

Senior Colton Huestis led the Sentinels with 20 points. Morgan said his team did a decent job defending Ticonderoga’s top scorer, but added that a lot of damage came from the rest of Ticondergoa’s squad.

“He’s torched teams for 40 points a couple times this season,” Morgan said of Huestis. “We held him to 20, but the rest of their team went off for 50, and that hurt.”

The win was the fourth of the season for Ticonderoga. The loss dropped the Red Storm to 1-9 overall.

Saranac Lake’s next game is slated to be on the road Thursday at Plattsburgh. The Red Storm will next be at home Saturday in a non-league game against Lake Placid, starting at 1:30 p.m.

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Lake Placid 67, Johnsburg 34

LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid boys basketball team received scoring throughout the lineup Tuesday on the way to a 67-34 victory over Johnsburg in Mountain and Valley Athletic Conference South Division action.

Three players hit in double figures for Lake Placid, and eight more Blue Bombers also scored points in the win. Pao, a junior foreign exchange student from Thailand, again led the way, dumping in a team-high 18 points. Justin Novick added 13 points and Jacob Novick chipped in 10 points for Lake Placid, which ended a short two-game losing skid and improved to 7-3 overall.

Connor Cavanaugh paced Johnsburg with a game-high 19 points.