Things keep getting better for Seven Lakes.

The Spartans have been riding a high and surging up the district standings beating every team above them in the district standings along the way.

But there was one team that had always given Seven Lakes trouble on the road against, and that is Tompkins, which was the only team left ahead of Seven Lakes in the District 19-6A standings.

That changed on Wednesday, as the Spartans went into the Tompkins gym and came away with an 81-60 win, moving into a tie for first place in district in the process.

“This has been a place where we’ve struggled to win and I hate losing to Tompkins,” said Seven Lakes senior wing Justice Carlton. “I just wanted to come here and get this one since it’s the last time I’m playing here. There was some personal motivation with that, but everyone on the team played so well and it was a great game.”

The Spartans jumped ahead and never looked back in the game. Seven Lakes led 27-17 after one quarter and increased that to 44-28 at halftime. Tompkins had a burst in the third quarter and brought the deficit to less than 10, but Seven Lakes continued to pull away after, bringing it back up to a 14-point game before a comfortable fourth quarter sealed it.

“This is a very unselfish group,” said Seven Lakes head coach Doug Watson. They don’t mind who is getting the glory on the offensive end and they’re buying into what we are doing on the defensive end. They played really well on the defensive end tonight and made it hard on Tompkins to score, when they’re playing together like that it’s a really hard team to beat.”

Madison Carlton led the way with 29, while Justice Carlton had 15, Shreya Jategaonkar had 15 and Kimora Lopez had 10. Seven Lake got contributions up and down the lineup in a complete team win.

“We are playing so freely this year and it’s really fun to be a part of,” Justice Carlton said. “It lets everyone get involved and we just feed off of each other. it’s up tempo and hard to defend us.”

Seven Lakes is now just a half game back of Tompkins at the top of the district standings.

“This whole season has been amazing,” Madison Carlton said. “Justice is hard on me but knows how to do it to where I don’t break as well and then our coaching staff is amazing. The teammates, the coaches, everyone on this team is clicking at the right time.”

District 19-6A

Seven Lakes 81, Tompkins 60

Points: (SL) Madison Carlton 29, Justice Carlton 15, Shreya Jategaonkar 15, Kimora Lopez 10, Caitlyn Quintero 5, Lenore Hudspeth 4, Dulce Franco 3, Gracie Hobin 2; (T) Rihanna DeLeon 22, Gabby Panter 15, Caitlyn D’Addieco 11, Sascha Coughran 6, Haylie Panter 3, Peyton Musselman 3;

Halftime: Seven Lakes 44-28; 3-Pointers: (SL) Jategaonkar 3, Quintero, Franco, Justice Carlton; (T) DeLeon 5, D’Addieco, Musselman; Records: (SL) 21-8, 8-2; (T) 24-6, 9-2;