Campbell loses to Lakeway, on to Loudon on Friday Night

Lakeway Christian Academy Lions 70 Cougars 56

By Clayton Carroll 

STRAWBERRY PLAINS, (WLAF) – Campbell traveled to Carter High School on Tuesday for the third place game of the Carter Christmas Shootout. The Orange-and-Blue faced the Lakeway Christian Academy Lions of White Pine, who lost to Carter 64-54 in the semifinal on Monday, to find themselves in the consolation game. A Cougars loss to Heritage, 68 -35, on Monday set the match-up.

Campbell kept it close in the first quarter, trailing Lakeway 19-13 after one. 

Jake Hatmaker drives off a Koalton Cupp screen

In the second quarter, the Lions used their 6’1″ and 6’2″ players to outrun the Cougars. “We started missing some threes which led to runouts and easy buckets for Lakeway,” said assistant head coach Brandon Clawson. At the break, it was 45-26 in favor of the Lions. 

The Cougars clawed back in the third and fourth quarters, chopping the Lakeway lead down to eight in the fourth quarter. However, it would be too little too late, as Lakeway hung on to win 70-56.

The Cougars fall to 4 and 9, while Lakeway improves 2 and 6. 

Will Croley launches from long range

Tops in scoring for the Cougars was Jake Hatmaker. Hatmaker, your Kitts Paint and Body Player of the Game, scored 17 points on the afternoon. Finishing just behind Hatmaker with 16 points was Will Croley. Jack Sexton ended the game with 11 points. Hunter Dotson and Koalton Cupp both ended with five points. Sam Sexton rounded out the scoring column with two points, and Braydon Graham and Caden Heatherly played but did not score. 

The Cougars have a trip to Loudon waiting on them Friday night, the final non-district game before the Orange-and-Blue will play seven straight district games. The Lady Cougars will tip at 6pm with the Cougars game to follow. 

Join the “Voice of the Cougars” Josh Parker for all the fun over WLAF beginning at 5:50pm. The WLAF Doyle’s Tire Sports Network spans ten WLAF media platforms. Listen over WLAF TV-1089 on Comcast-Xfinity,1450wlaf.com, Roku TV, Amazon Fire TV, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, WLAF Radio AM 1450 & FM 100.9 and Amazon Alexa. 

(WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED 12-31-25 6AM – PHOTOS COURTESY OF JONATHAN CUPP)