Lakeland High School’s girls’ basketball team got a lift from the recent return of freshman Makayla Dickens and defeated host Phoebus High School 55-46 on Tuesday night.

The Lady Phantoms have been building an impressive reputation for themselves in the Ironclad Conference after logging two victories over King’s Fork High School, but they could not contain the Lady Cavaliers’ group of impressive young stars.

“I thought (we) played outstanding. We made our fair share of mistakes, but we didn’t let it beat us,” Lakeland coach Brandey Blunt said of her whole team. “We kept our composure, and we just kept fighting.”

Before the season began, Dickens had been one of the highly-anticipated additions to the Lady Cavs’ roster this season, but a high ankle sprain kept her off the court until mid-January.

She played for about a minute or so against the visiting Lady Phantoms on Jan. 16 and was tentative in her first official game back, which was against visiting Nansemond River High School on Friday.

“Tonight, that girl went all out,” Blunt said on Tuesday.

Dickens had 16 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals to help Lakeland.

Contributing along with her was freshman Brianna Copeland with 14 points, freshman Kayla Barnes with 12 points, five boards, five steals and three assists and junior D’Jannay Patterson with eight points and two rebounds.

The Lady Cavaliers were down 11-2 to start the game, but some adjustments by Blunt put her team on the path to a comeback.

“We’re a very unselfish group, so everybody got to play, and everybody actually got to touch the ball,” she said. “This is a great win for us.”

Lakeland (6-12, 1-5) visits King’s Fork High School (12-4, 4-2) on Friday.