The Wilmington High boys basketball team has some work ahead of it.

The Greyhounds lost a chance to move into a tie for first place in the District 10, Region 2-AA with a 56-45 loss to visiting Lakeview last night.

The Sailors widened their lead in the region standings at 7-1 (15-5 overall). Wilmington (5-3, 8-11) now is tied for second in the region with Sharpsville, which beat Greenville last night. The Blue Devils (12-8 overall), who have won seven of their last eight games, are coached by former Neshannock mentor Jim Smiley. Wilmington travels to Sharpsville on Friday night to close out the region season, after which playoff pairings will be announced.

Although Wilmington shot 50 percent from the field (19 of 38), it got itself into a hole it could not dig out of, according to coach Mike Jeckavitch.

“We came out kind of slow, fell behind by 12 in the second quarter, but we fought back and pulled to within four going into the fourth quarter,” Jeckavitch said. “But we just couldn’t get that one shot to really get us back into it.

“We struggled shooting from outside tonight and didn’t rebound very well — we just gave up a lot of offensive rebounds. We tried to extend the game, but Lakeview made six free throws in the fourth quarter and that pretty much took us out of it.”

The Greyhounds shot just two free throws in the game. Anthony Derrick scored 17 to finish as the lone Wilmington player in double figures. Derrick also handed out five assists and Jordan Smith and Josh Tekac had five rebounds each.