The Lumberjacks’ junior Colin Strack scored a game-high 14 points, while Gaetano LaBue, a foreign exchange student, added 12 points en route to the win. John Tower recorded seven points, Noah Switzer chipped in with three and Tim Peterson had two.

Tupper Lake’s head coach, Brian Bennett, thought his young team had a solid outing, but said there is room for improvement.

“We have one true senior, and one foreign exchange student, who we’re calling a senior, and then the rest are juniors and sophomores,” he said. “So we’re still young, but young is not an excuse. They’re still growing, so I’m glad we got the win, but there’s still a lot of growing to do.”

The Lumberjacks took control early, jumping out to a 9-5 lead after the first quarter, before extending their advantage to 28-10 at halftime.

Tupper Lake’s Charlie Skiff dribbles the ball during Monday’s game against Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

After the break, the Blue Bombers posted their best quarter, outscoring Tupper Lake 8-4, and at one point brought the score to within 10; however, turnovers and offensive miscues dug the team into a deeper hole in the fourth quarter.

Lake Placid’s head coach, Brian Brandes, said his team played like they had just come off a two-week break.

“We practiced six or seven times, we did a lot of shooting, a lot of defense, but we should have done more organization of our offense,” he said. “There were a lot of one-on-fives, a lot of forcing shots, a lot of turnovers … and that’s how you score 23 points.”

Josh Hobday and Zach Kissel led Lake Placid with five points each, while Kenny Lawrence and Caleb Wylie each finished with four points. Max Perez and Hugh Kissel scored two points each, and Eric Rock had one point.

Monday’s match marked the first time the two schools have faced off against one another since 2019. Bennett said he was glad to get Lake Placid back on their schedule.

“We haven’t played Tupper Lake-Lake Placid in a game in a long time,” he said. “So I was good to get that back. We play Saranac Lake every year, but it’s good to get the Lake Placid game back because we’ve lost it for a couple of years.”

With the win, the Lumberjacks improved to 2-6 overall, while snapping a six-game losing streak.

“We haven’t won in a month, so the win feels good,” Bennett said. “We also haven’t played in a couple of weeks or two, so it’s nice that we play again on Thursday. It’s the first home game (in January). Hopefully, we carry it and go from there.”

Tupper Lake will host Harrisville today and Chateaugay on Monday, both at 7 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Blue Bombers dropped to 2-5 overall. The team defeated St. Regis Falls 34-24 on Dec. 8 and Willsboro 52-36 on Dec. 12. Lake Placid has a tough slate of home games upcoming as the squad will host back-to-back games this week against state-ranked teams in Schroon Lake today and Bolton on Friday. Tip-off for both games is at 6:30 p.m.

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Tupper Lake 38, Lake Placid 23

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Blue Bombers 5 5 8 5 — 23

Lumberjacks 9 19 4 6 — 38

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Individual stats

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Tupper Lake (38): John Tower 3-1-7; Tim Peterson 1-0-2; Ethan Barkley 0-0-0; Gaetano LaBue 6-0-12; Colin Strack 6-0-14; Charlie Skiff 0-0-0; Noah Switzer 1-0-3; Jude Augustine 0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-1-38.

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Lake Placid (23): Sean McCauley 0-0-0; Kenny Lawrence 2-0-4; Kevin Bonet 0-0-0; Nick Adragna 0-0-0; Hugh Kissel 1-0-2; Zach Kissel 2-0-5; Caleb Wylie 2-0-4; Torrin Fadden 0-0-0; Emerson Sweet 0-0-0; Max Perez 1-0-2; Josh Hobday 2-0-5; Jack Wright 0-0-0; Eric Rock 0-1-1. TOTALS: 10-1-23.

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3-point goals: Tupper Lake (3): Colin Strack 2; Noah Switzer. Lake Placid (2): Zach Kissel; Josh Hobday.

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