The Lake Land College’s (LLC) Lady Lakers women’s basketball team, under the guidance of longtime coach, David Johnson, alongside his assistant, Tom Titus. finished the 2024-25 season with a 28-9 record, including a 13-3 record in the Great Rivers Athletics Conference (GRAC). They were 11-2 at home, 9-3 on the road, and 8-4 in neutral site games.
Coach Johnson is entering his 25th season at LLC. Under his guidance, the Lady Lakers have had numerous winning seasons, top 25 rankings, and average 21 wins per season. Most recently, the Lady Lakers took home the NJCAA DII National Championship in 2021.
Johnson highlighted that “the team was good offensively, especially executing the half-court offense. We were definitely more of a half-court team last year. We did not run fast breaks as much as in previous years. We were effective running our sets and getting high quality shots.”
“Our main weakness from last season is that we did not rebound as well as in years past. We did not rebound as a team as I would have liked. This year, we are concentrated in getting into good rebounding positions on every shot …On the offensive end, we need to be cognizant of where to go to create better offensive rebounding situations and defensively, we need to focus on blocking out and go after the boards on the defensive end.”
The Lady Lakers will open their season away on Nov. 1, as they will be hosted by the Kansas City Kansas Community College Blue Devils in Kansas City, KS. The Lady Lakers will travel to Lake Worth, FL to play against the Palm Beach State College Lady Panthers the next day.
The Lady Lakers’ home opener is on Nov. 7, as they will host the Grand Rapids Community College Lady Lakers in the Laker Tournament. Additionally, in the Laker Tournament, the Lady Lakers will play the Black Hawk College Braves on Nov. 9.
The Lady Lakers will play in two tournaments, each in November and December. On Nov. 14-16, the Lady Lakers will travel to Port Huron, MI, to play in the SC4 Thumbcoast Tip-Off, hosted by St. Clair County Community College, featuring top junior college women’s basketball teams.
On Dec. 28-30, the Lady Lakers will play in the Illinois Central College Tournament in East Peoria, IL, on the campus of Illinois Central College as they will play against seven other community colleges in the holiday tournament.
The Lady Lakers conference opener will be on the road, as they will be hosted by the Olney Central Lady Knights on Nov. 22. After a week-and-a-half hiatus for Thanksgiving break, the Lady Lakers will be in action, as they will be hosted by the Jefferson College Lady Vikings on Dec. 3 in Hillsboro, MO.
The Lady Lakers conference home opener will be on Jan. 10 when they host the Illinois Central College Lady Cougars. The Lady Lakers’ last home game of the regular season will be on Feb. 21 as they will host the John Wood Community College Trail Blazers.
The Lady Lakers will conclude their regular season on the road on Feb. 28 at Godfrey, IL as they will be hosted by the Lewis & Clark College Trail Blazers.
The conference tournament will be announced at a later date, since at the Junior College level, conference tournaments are played at the host school who finished the conference in first place.
