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Another Milestone For The Lakers' Garcia

By Tom Schardin, 02/29/20, 10:30PM CST

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Dawson Garcia reached another milestone in helping the Prior Lake boys basketball team to its seventh straight win.

The 6-foot-11 senior forward went over 2,000 points for his career in the No. 10-ranked Lakers' 90-76 victory Feb. 24 at Eagan in South Suburban Conference play. The Marquette University recruit finished with a game-high 35 points.

Earlier in the day, Garcia was also named one of the five finalists for the state's Mr. Basketball Award, which will be announced April 5 at the Target Center in Minneapolis in the Minnesota Timberwolves' home game versus Detroit.

The other four finalists are Ben Carlson of East Ridge, Drake Dobbs of Eden Prairie, Nate Heise of Lake City and Jalen Suggs of Minnehaha Academy.

The Lakers (17-7 overall, 14-3 in the SSC) end the regular season Feb. 28 at home versus Lakeville North in conference play at 7 p.m. A win and an Eastview loss to Shakopee would give Prior Lake a three-way share of the league title with both the Lightning and the Sabers.

Section 2AAAA playoff brackets come out Feb. 29 and the Lakers will be either the No. 3 or 4 seed.

Top-ranked Eden Prairie (25-0) will be the No. 1 seed, while No. 9 Chaska (22-3) should be in the No. 2 spot. The Sabers (20-5) are vying with the Lakers for the No. 3 seed.

Other teams in the field include Edina (13-12), Minnetonka (12-13), Chanhassen (6-19) and Bloomington Jefferson (8-16).

Quarterfinal play begins March 4 with the semifinals March 7. The title game is March 11, and the higher seed is at home in all three rounds. Eden Prairie beat the Lakers 62-45 for the crown last spring.

In the win over Eagan, Prior Lake led 48-40 at the break with Garcia scoring 20 of his 35 points in the first half. He leads the team at 32.3 points per game.

Senior Tyree Ihenacho finished with 17 points for the Lakers, while sophomore Malcolm Jones scored 14. Senior Dylan Bair chipped in 8 points and junior Tommy Mestnik and senior DJ Doyen both had 5.