WALLED LAKE, Mich.- Walled Lake Central junior guard Dylan Hudspeth was feeling it Friday night. Hudspeth went off for 19 points as Central went on to defeat Lakeland 51-39 in front of a full house at Central.

Hudspeth scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half, 12 of which came in the third quarter.

“I was feeling it in the third for a little bit,” Hudspeth said on his performance in the second half. “My teammates did a good job on getting me the ball.”

Hudspeth also hit a huge half-court shot at the end of the third to put Central up 41-35.

“I heard a little count down in my head, I just wanted to get it off in time,” Hudspeth added on his half-court shot. “I just chucked it up there and it was just a little prayer.”

Central was able to overcome a slow start when they trailed 14-7 going into the second quarter. They were able to outscore Lakeland 15-6 in the quarter to take a 22-20 lead into halftime.

“We just wanted to pick the tempo up,” Walled Lake Central head coach Chuck Spolsky said. “We knew it was going to be a tough up and down game, that’s what we wanted. We just stayed level-headed.”

Coach Spolsky was pleased with the way Hudspeth played in the third quarter to lead the Vikings.

“He’s a really good player that a lot of people don’t know about,” Spolsky added. “He’s been on fire lately, it’s great.”

Senior forward Anton Lucaj also had a nice game for Central scoring 16 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three. Lucaj scored 13 of his 16 points in the first half. Senior guard Walter Kelser added eight points and senior center Malik Abiola led the team with 11 rebounds.

Lakeland came out with a lot of energy leading Central 14-7 after the first quarter. They were unable to build off of that great start as they got outscored 44-25 the rest of the way.

Sophomore forward Kyle Soderberg led Lakeland with 12 points and senior forward Martin Sinishtaj added 10 points.

Lakeland ends the season with a record of 14-8 and went 0-3 against Central this year.

Walled Lake Central (19-3) advances to the Regional 5 division and will face Novi (14-9) at West Bloomfield on Monday, March 14 at 7 p.m.

“We just have to take practice hard every single day,” Hudspeth said. “We just have to take it one game at a time, that’s the biggest thing. We can’t take it for granted, these moments are special.”