Lakers needed a win over Cass City to remain in the Greater Thumb West race and they did just that, and a whole lot more with a commanding 49-35 victory on Friday in Cass City. Now, the Lakers need just one more win at Vassar on Tuesday to force a split in the league title with the Red Hawks.

The Green Machine came out and were leading 13-0 to start the game before Cass City's Trent Patrick scored the lone points in the first quarter on a three-pointer with just 52 seconds left. At halftime, Lakers led by nine points, maintaining an approximate 10-point lead for the majority of the game. Cass City would make a run to start the second and actually tie the game 29-29 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter, but Lakers would finish the quarter on a 5-0 run to lead 34-29 entering the fourth. In the final quarter, the green and white would outscore Cass City 15-6, making 5 of their 8 free throw attempts in the waning moments.

Lakers were led by Mikel Good with 20 points and Hunter Krohn with 16. Caden Carriveau came off the bench to score 7 points, while Layton Krohn added 4 and each Logan Carr and Ethan Wissner with one made free throw. Lakers shot 44% for the game, including 66% (10-15) in the second half. Rebounding was also heavily in favor of Lakers, outrebounding Cass City 37-21.

The Red Hawks' scoring attack was hampered by poor shooting as well as Lakers' defense and height, making just 17% of shots on their home floor in the first half and 27% for the entire night. Cass City's offense was paced by Carter Patrick with 11 points, Michael Fernald 7 points, Riley Swiderski and Cohen Sherman each at 5, Evan Clark with 4 points and Trent Patrick 3.

The last conference title for the Elkton Pigeon Bay Port Lakers came 25 years ago in 1998. Their game against Vassar was originally scheduled for Wednesday, February 25, but was moved to this coming Tuesday due to weather.