May 15, 2018 4 min read

In lacrosse

Peters Township defeated Indiana,18-8, in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs. Emily Anderson had 6 goals and Mackenzie Lehman had 5 goals.

• Knoch defeated Trinity, 15-1, in a first-round match. Ivan Stapchuk had 5 goals.

At The Meadows

Lakeisha Hall blew by Medusa in the Lightning Lane to capture Tuesday’s $20,000 Filly & Mare Preferred Handicap Pace at The Meadows. It was a milestone win for the 5-year-old daughter of Third Straight-Lantana Hall, as she soared over $500,000 in career earnings for trainer Ron Burke and owners Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi LLC and Jack Piatt II.

Lakeisha Hall and Medusa have been on a collision course for the past two months, clashing first in the Blue Chip Matchmaker Series at Yonkers and more recently in the Chip Noble at Miami Valley. Each has had her moments in the rivalry, but it was Lakeisha Hall’s time Tuesday. While Graceful Vision attacked Medusa outside, Dave Palone steered Lakeisha Hall inside, where she drew away and downed Graceful Vision by 1-3/4 lengths in 1:51.3. Shesasmokinlady also shot the Lightning Lane to complete the ticket.

It was one of four wins for Palone – including a pair for Burke – on the 13-race card.

Suns get first pick

Phoenix general manager Ryan McDonough was on stage moments after the NBA draft lottery ended, talking about the future of the Suns and mentioning how they had the best odds of picking No. 1 overall.

And then he stopped to correct himself.

“We have No. 1,” McDonough said. “I’ve got to adjust to that.”

It’s an adjustment that he and the Suns will happily be making.

The worst team in the league this season will pick first in the NBA draft on June 21, after the Suns won the draft lottery on Tuesday night. It’s the first time the Suns will have the chance to make the first overall selection.

“It’s great for our franchise,” said McDonough, whose club went 21-61 this season and missed the playoffs for an eighth consecutive year. “It’s something that you say coming into it, you don’t have any control over it so you’re not going to get nervous. And I was here dying. I could barely breathe. I needed an oxygen tank.”

The Suns have three great candidates for No. 1, all with ties to either Arizona or new Phoenix coach Igor Kokoskov. Arizona freshman center Deandre Ayton is widely expected to be a strong candidate to go No. 1 overall, and he was at the lottery to watch the Suns win the pick. So was Duke’s Marvin Bagley III, an Arizona native.

The Suns were big winners.

So were Sacramento and Atlanta.

Sacramento will pick No. 2 and Atlanta got the No. 3 pick – both of them moving up and bucking some odds to get there. The top three spots were determined by the lottery, and then spots 4-14 fell in line of reverse order of record.

Sacramento had a 18.3 percent chance entering the lottery of moving into the top three, while Atlanta’s move-up was really just a slightly bigger upset than a coin-flip – the Hawks came into the night with a 42.3 percent chance of getting picks 1, 2 or 3.

The Hawks, like the Suns, got their lottery result one day after introducing a new coach. Lloyd Pierce is taking over in Atlanta, with a reputation of helping great young talent develop – he’s worked with Joel Embiid, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and LeBron James, among many others.

The rest of the slots, in order, went to No. 4 Memphis, No. 5 Dallas, No. 6 Orlando, No. 7 Chicago, No. 8 Cleveland, No. 9 New York, No. 10 Philadelphia, No. 11 Charlotte, No. 12 and No. 13 Los Angeles Clippers, and No. 14 Denver.

The draft is June 21 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.