BY BRAD KRZYZANOWSKI
AND LISA VALENTINE
Special to The Review and Review Staff Writer

The struggle continued for the Lake Orion High School varsity basketball team last week as they had a loss on the road against Auburn Hills Avondale on Feb. 11 and a home loss against Birmingham Groves on Feb. 14.
Against Avondale, Lake Orion put up a fight but fell 69-65 to the Yellow Jackets. Junior Carl McDonald led the Dragons with 18 points, while Joel Malkasian had 15 and Brent Skiba had 10 for Lake Orion. Nate Recknagle and Robert Kennedy each had six points for the team.
In the first meeting of the season between Lake Orion and Groves, the Dragons held Groves to their lowest offensive output of the season. In their second meeting on Feb. 14, the same could not be said as the Dragons lost their 12th game, 68-49, to Groves.
The game was in Groves’ hands since the clock began as Groves’ Giordan Watson hit a 3-pointer on their first possession. Watson again made a lay-up to get him started with a quick five points. Watson ended the game with 14.
Lake Orion coach Jim Manzo knew that if Watson got started early he would be hard to stop the rest of the way.
“We don’t see that caliber of player every night,” he said. “When he gets confidence early, you can count on him having a good game.”
The Dragons’ first half troubles were not attributed to anything in particular. Moving up from OAA III last year into OAA II this year, Lake Orion knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get victories.
“We don’t have the firepower to contend with them,” said Manzo. “If we played them a hundred times I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost 99 of those.”
The loss left the Dragons at 4-12 before hosting Troy Athens on Feb. 18. District brackets will be drawn on Thursday, and Lake Orion could find themselves with a first-round bye. The only difficulty is whom the team will find in their districts.
Pontiac Northern, Pontiac Central, Avondale and Rochester Adams will be found in the way of a Dragons’ district title this year. They are all teams Lake Orion has lost to, except Adams. Lake Orion won that game 53-51, but Adams was without their best player.