13 Tri-Lake hoopers named all-stars
While the Tri-Lakes region didn’t see any of its basketball teams bring home a sectional title this past winter sports season, it was a relatively successful year for some local student-athletes.
The Saranac Lake boys and the Tupper Lake boys basketball team reached the championship game for their respective sections.
Meanwhile, 13 student-athletes from the boys and girls basketball teams from Lake Placid, Saranac Lake and Tupper Lake were honored for their efforts on the court.
Saranac Lake had five players — four boys and one girl –honored as Champlain Valley Atheltic Conference all-stars, while Lake Placid had six — three boys and three girls — named Mountain and Valley Athletic Conference all-stars. Tupper Lake had two boys receive league honors in Northern Athletic Conference.
Junior Caleb Akey led the charge for the Red Storm boys this past season with a second-team nomination, while his teammates Landon LaDue and Markus Navarra were named to the third team. Senior Carter Hewitt was named as an honorable mention.
Akey, LaDue and Navarra averaged over 10 points per game for Saranac Lake, while Hewitt just missed out on the double-digit average mark with 9.7 points per game, which was the fourth-best on the team.
The Red Storm boys finished with one of their best seasons in recent history when they advanced to the Section VII, Class B title game for the first time since 2007. The team finished with a 13-9 record overall.
On the girls side, Phoebe Peer, a junior, was named a CVAC honorable mention. Peer was one of Saranac Lake’s top scorers and rebounders. Peer helped the team finish with a five-win season.
The Lake Placid girls were led by senior Julia Crawford and junior Nadia Phillip. The duo was named to the MVAC Division II first team and Katie Coursen, a senior, was an honorable mention.
Crawford and Phillip were the top scorers, while Coursen was one of the team’s top three-point shooters. The girls finished the season with an 8-11 record.
On the boys side, Seb Cecunjanin, a sophomore, was the lone Blue Bomber named to the Division II first team. Lake Placid had two honorable mentions in senior Foster Wood and junior Talon Jordon.
Cecunjanin averaged 13.6 points per game this season — the most on the team — while Jordon and Wood finished second and third on the team, respectively. The trio also ranked top-three on the team for rebounds.
For Tupper Lake, Tom Peterson, a junior, was a first-team All-NAC East Division, while fellow junior Michael Corneau was named to the second team.
The Lumberjacks reached the Section X, Class C championship game for the first time since 2014 and Corneau and Peterson played a big role in that, while helping the team finish with a record of 17-5.
Peterson led Tupper Lake in scoring with 463 points for a per-game average of 21 points. Corneau registered 437 points for a 19.9 average per game.