Boys Basketball: Gabe Levin leads Oak Park past Lyons

Updated: February 11, 2012 7:05PM

Gabe Levin likes to show up early for games. He showed up early and often Saturday, scoring 19 points to lead Oak Park-River Forest to a 58-35 victory against Lyons in a West Suburban Silver contest.

The victory avenged a 65-53 loss to the Lions on January 13th and kept the Huskies in first place in the conference.

‘‘I showed up about four hours before the game to shoot,’’ Levin said. ‘‘I love to shoot because I’m not that good at it.’’

The Lions may have a different opinion about the senior forward’s shooting touch. Levin scored nine points as the Huskies (16-5, 8-2) opened an 11-5 lead with three minutes remaining. Levin connected on four of his first five shots.

‘‘He does everything for us,’’ Oak Park coach Matt Maloney said. ‘‘He’s an honor roll student. He’s from a great family. He’s just a wonderful kid. I couldn’t ask for a better kid.’’

Levin and the Huskies had a start that was exactly the opposite of the one in the first game between the two teams. In that game, Lyons led 36-19 at one point and had the Huskies in a hole they couldn’t dig themselves out of.

‘‘The biggest factor for them was the offensive boards,’’ Lyons coach Tom Sloan said. ‘‘We couldn’t afford to let them have two and three shots at the basket. They were really aggressive in the paint and on the glass.’’

Taccourus Mattox joined Levin in dominating the boards — especially in the first half when the Huskies led 28-16. Oak Park held a 19-8 rebounding edge in the first half and Mattox pulled down seven of his 11 rebounds and Levin grabbed six of his 10 before halftime.

‘‘[Taccourus] has had an up and down year,’’ Maloney said. ‘‘But today was the way that he is capable of playing with the blocks, the rebounds and the scoring.’’

Lyons (9-13, 5-5) reeled off nine unanswered points in the third quarter to cut the score to 34-27 behind Kenneth Smith, Jarryd Heath (nine points) and Matt Robare (11 points). Levin ended the quarter with four points to stymie the comeback attempt.

Smith was held to two points after scoring 28 in the first game.

Mattox and Ka’Darryl Bell each scored 10 for the Huskies.

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