Boys Basketball: Lyons cruises by Downers North

Updated: January 7, 2012 12:10AM

Lyons is not the offensive juggernaut it was last year, but the Lions did enough Friday night to knock off host Downers Grove North 58-39 in a West Suburban Conference Silver Division contest.

The victory gave Lyons (4-9, 1-2) its first winning streak and first league win of the season.

“We’re playing much better,” said Lyons coach Tom Sloan said, whose team was coming off a victory over Maine South. “In the Christmas tournament we kind of turned some things around and started to play a lot better than we had been to that point.”

After Downers North (4-10, 0-4) scored the first eight points of the game, the visitors settled down and used their defense to set up their offense.

The Trojans led 21-20 following a three-pointer from 6-7 senior forward Rob Mahlke with 4:33 left in the second quarter when the Lions went on a 15-0 run, scoring the final 13 points of the half and the first two of the second half.

Senior guard Kenny Smith ignited the run by scoring eight straight points, including a pair of three-pointers, and finished with a game-high 19 points.

“That is exactly what LT basketball is about, man; playing hard and scoring baskets and being confident,” Smith said. “[The keys were] picking up the defensive pressure, stop making silly mistakes, get the jitters out at the beginning of the game and start playing harder than what we was playing.”

After missing five of their first six shots and turning the ball over three times, the Lions became more patient. Chris O’Reilly sank his first four shots, two of which were treys, and wound up with 14 points, six rebounds and two steals.

“We have guys that can shoot it when they get shots within the flow of the offense,” Sloan said. “We don’t have a lot of guys that are good at creating their own shot or scoring off the dribble. We have to do a better job of coming off screens, setting our guys up.

“In the first two or three minutes we didn’t do a good job of that and as the first half progressed, we played better off the ball and we were a little bit more patient and we got some shots. We also got some stuff going up and down the floor.”

The Lions led by as many as 15 in the third quarter before the undermanned Trojans, who were playing without three of their top six players due to injury, mounted a comeback. Guard Davis Skirgaila sank two of his three three-pointers and Dennis Blake scored twice on drives down the lane during a 14-2 run that cut the Lyons lead to 39-36 following a bucket by Mahlke with 7:22 left in the fourth quarter.

That, however, was the last basket Downers North would score, as the Lions closed the game with a 19-3 run.

“The kids are disappointed,” Downers North coach Jim Thomas said. “We have a lot of disappointed, tired bodies down in the locker room. [The Lions] did a nice job making us tired. They pressured us, showed us a lot of different looks defensively.’

Mahlke led the Trojans with 13 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, while Blake added 11 points and Skirgaila had nine points. Joe Carroll tallied seven points and three steals and Matt Robare added six points and seven boards for Lyons.

“This is a big confidence boost for the rest of the season, to keep pushing and know that we are a good team and we can beat good teams,” Smith said. “I think we’re doing pretty good right now.”

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