Lake City girls basketball has “amazing” season

Dennis Brunson • March 23, 2025

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LakeCity junior, Na'Shira Starks claiming a rebound against Andrew Jackson in the playoffs.

By Dennis Brunson

hssr.com Associate Editor

Lake City – To say the just completed season for the Lake City High School girls basketball team was amazing might be something of an understatement. However, that’s the word Panthers head coach Shaquetta Cooper is going to use, so roll with it.

“What an amazing run by this group,” said Cooper, who just completed her first season as head coach. “A lot of people didn’t expect us to make it as far as we did.”

Lake City finished the year with a 17-8 overall record and went 10-2 to win Region 7-AA. The Panthers then made a run to the AA Lower State championship game.

Lake City rolled past Buford 60-22 in its first-round game before outlasting Hampton County 38-27 in the second round. It then beat region foe Kingstree 42-38 in the quarterfinals.

The run came to an end with a 96-33 loss to behemoth Andrew Jackson, now the 2-time defending AA state champion. That’s neither here nor there though.

“While it wasn’t the ending to the season we were hoping for, the fight and resilience of this team is something to be proud of,” Cooper said. “I am so proud of them.”

Lake City had three players named to the All-Region 7-AA team in eighth-grader Hannah Riles, junior Jada Robinson and junior Na’Shira Starks.

Riles led Lake City in scoring with a 12.2 points-per-game average. She also averaged 3.0 steals, 1.3 assists and 2.4 rebounds.

Starks led the way in rebounding at 7.2 and was second in scoring at 8.4. Robinson led in steals at 3.2 while averaging 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds.

Senior Tyra Jones was a key contributor as was junior Trayana Burgess. Jones averaged 4.0 points, 2.8 steals and 2.7 rebounds, while Burgess averaged 5.6 points, 3.0 steals and 2.7 rebounds.

EDWARDS BOYS BASKETBALL ALL-REGION PICK

Senior Blayne Edwards was the lone Lake City representative on the All-Region 7 boys basketball team.

Edwards led the Panthers in scoring at a 13.8 clip. He also averaged 6.8 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.6 steals. He was rated as the region’s third best player, according to Lake City head coach Senneca Barron.

Senior Kenjae Burgess averaged 10.3 points while leading in assists at 4.1 and sharing the lead in steals at 3.4. He also grabbed 5.6 rebounds a contest.

Another senior, Devin Cockfield, led in rebounding at 12.8 while averaging 7.8 points.

Lake City went 9-10 on the season, finishing 6-6 and in fifth place in the region. The Panthers made the playoffs where they lost to Philip Simmons 69-34 in the first round.

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