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It was a bittersweet senior night for Lafayette Christian as the boys basketball team topped Praise Academy 65-52 and celebrated six seniors, who will be playing their final games with the Cougars in the coming weeks.

The six seniors — Avery Martinez, Kaden Neal, Jonathon Pierson, Matheus Pittman, Bruno Tellez and Joshua Zapata — were celebrated before tipoff as they played in their final regular season home game.

Neither offense got much going in the first quarter, but the Cougars did just enough to take an 11-6 lead into the second. Both offenses found another gear in the second quarter as the Cougars were able to stretch their lead out to 32-24 heading into halftime.

The third quarter proved to be decisive as coach David Gisler’s group came out with a fiery passion in the third quarter, outscoring Praise 16-6 to take a commanding lead into the fourth quarter. Even though Praise was able to outscore the Cougars in the fourth, it was too little too late.

The senior duo of Tellez and Zapata led the way for the Cougar offense. Zapata finished with 24 points while Tellez had 19. 

Fellow seniors Pierson and Neal got in the scoring column as well with nine and four points, respectively. 

Vakiel Hammet also had a big game, scoring nine points with 15 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. 

Lafayette Christian has now won three games in a row and five of its last six games to improve to 14-6 overall and 4-2 in region play.