But it was anything but easy.
Fighting off nerves and a gritty Gordon Lee squad, the Lady Warriors held on for a 47-44 victory that wasn't decided until one final shot by the Lady Trojans fell short at the buzzer.
It was the second straight NGAC tournament title and the third consecutive league title for Lakeview and head coach Abby Bray.
"It feels great to win it, but I think we're all glad it's finally over," Bray explained. "We've been playing basketball since October and I know we're all tired and ready for a break."
Down two points after one quarter, Lakeview went inside during the second quarter, scoring 10 of their 13 points in the paint to take a 22-18 lead at halftime.
Gordon Lee would tie the game at 25 on a 3-pointer by Avrie Weldon with 4:21 to play in the third quarter, but Lakeview's Kaleigh Clemons would assert herself shortly thereafter.
Clemons scored the game's next 10 points in a span of just over a minute. After a driving lay-up, she grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and converted it into a 3-point play. She followed up that up with a steal and another lay-up just seven seconds later, and capped the spurt with a 3-pointer that put her team up 35-25 with 2:57 left in the third.
Late in the fourth and ahead by five, Clemons appeared to have salted the game away on a driving lay-up with 1:15 left and two free throws just 15 seconds later.
But Sarah Meadows second 3-pointer of the quarter cut the lead down to six and after Lakeview missed two free throws, Meadows rattled in another trey to slice the lead to three with nine seconds left.
Clemons missed the front end of a one-and-one with three seconds left, giving Gordon Lee one final shot, but Weldon's off-balance 3-point attempt missed its mark as time expired.
"A lot of the kids came out a little nervous today, especially in the first half when we missed a lot of easy shots," Bray said. "Give credit to Gordon Lee. They came in with a great game plan and hit some big 3-pointers, but we just found a way to win.
"We've got some really good players, and when you can put the ball in the hands of someone like Kaleigh Clemons and tell her to take over, it helps. She did what we asked her to do, and we had a great supporting cast behind her all season long."
Clemons, the tournament's Most Valuable Player, finished with a game high 25 points, 18 coming in the second half, while Rachel Harwood added seven points.
"We executed what we were trying to do pretty well for the most part, but we didn't do a very good job of keeping them off the boards in the first half," said Gordon Lee head coach David Eason. "We let Clemons get loose late a couple of times down the stretch, which hurt us, but other than that, I was really proud of how we executed and I thought we did a terrific job."
Weldon had a team-high 17 points for the Lady Trojans while Meadows added 13, including 11 in the fourth quarter.
"We had a shot to tie the championship game at the end of the year, and we never would have thought that when we first started practice," added Eason, whose team finished the year at 16-4. "We've got a whole lot better as the season went on and they dug it out today. I was really proud of that."
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