The 2002 and ’05 Lakewood state championship team photos hanging in the school’s gymnasium serve as a great source of pride – and a source of motivation.

Spartans players have to stare at them every day at practice.

“We want to move them over to make a spot for us,” Lakewood coach Anthony Lawrence said.

This year’s Spartans squad will get a shot at that after defeating Gainesville Eastside 60-46 in the Class 5A state semifinals. Lakewood will play American Heritage for the 5A title Saturday live on BHSN Channel 47 or HD 1147 or you can stream it on bhsn.com.

“It’s going to be a street fight,” said Lawrence, regarding American Heritage. “Our guys are tough. We’re going to give them everything we’ve got.”

That’s exactly how they beat Eastside, but dictating the play and playing Spartans brand of basketball.

In the first quarter,  led by Jacobi Boykins and Anthony Lawrence, Jr. with eight points each, Lakewood built an early lead shooting 55%. Eastside shot only 5-of-8 in the first quarter.

The Rams opened the second quarter with five straight points to cut Lakewood’s lead to three. But both teams struggled with shooting in the second. Lakewood was only 3-of-12, while Eastside was 4-of-14.

Turnovers continued to be a problem for the Rams. They turned the ball over five times in the second quarter. Overall, Lakewood scored 18 points off turnovers.

“We wanted to push the ball up and get a lot of easy buckets.” Lawrence said of the Spartans game plan. “It worked to our advantage.”

A 6-1 run by the Spartans in the third quarter built their lead to 10. But Eastside was able to cut the lead to five before the end of the third with Marquez Ross’ second three pointer of the quarter.

In the fourth, Lakewood completely took over the game, scoring eight-straight points, highlighted by Mike Clark’s reverse dunk putback, for a 53-40 lead. Eastside didn’t score in the fourth until Darius Norman hit a three with 1:52 remaining in the game.

Norman finished with 11 points for the Rams. Seth Brown lead his team with 18.

Lawrence led the Spartans with 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Boykins and Joqui Ellison each added 12.