The Lakers’ Division III, as North Tahoe coach Frank Wright anticipated, is shaping up to be a competitive league.

North Tahoe split a tough league road trip at White Pine and West Wendover on Friday and Saturday, defeating White Pine 54-51 to open the trip and falling 58-45 at West Wendover the following day.

West Wendover also defeated Incline 74-67 on Friday and is the only undefeated team in league, at 5-0 (12-4 overall).

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Incline, which defeated White Pine 60-47 on Saturday, is currently second in the league standings at 3-1, followed by White Pine and Battle Mountain, both at 3-2, and Yerington and Pershing County, both at 2-2. North Tahoe is 1-2 in the early going and Silver Stage 0-4.

The Lakers picked up a needed win against a quality White Pine team in Ely on Friday.

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“It was a war but a big win,” Wright said.

Senior guard Alex Tyler led the Lakers with 23 points and seven assists, while Mitchell Myers and Alex Bourriague each contributed 10 points. Senior guard Noah McDermott had 11 steals. Nick Johnson led White Pine with 14 points and 14 rebounds.

The Lakers gave West Wendover a good game Saturday but fell short of pulling out the victory.

North Tahoe trailed 16-13 after one quarter and 28-24 at the half, despite leading a good amount of the second quarter. The Wolverines outscored the Lakers 14-11 in the third quarter and 16-10 in the fourth to secure the win.

“We had many opportunities to go ahead but just could not find the bucket,” Wright said. “We did everything we needed to do to win but just fell a bit short at the end.”

Tyler scored a game-high 19 points and Myers scored 11, while Adrian Flores led West Wendover with 14.

The Lakers are scheduled to host Yerington (2-2) on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and play at Silver Stage (0-4) on Saturday.