Girls Basketball: Lyons wins own tournament title

Updated: November 28, 2011 6:17PM

In three of its first four games, Lyons found an offensive attack that it lacked a season ago.

LT finished 3-1 in its own Thanksgiving tournament last week, placing second behind Downers Grove South. All three of LT’s wins featured a different scorer.

Last season, Lyons Township ended up 1-3 in its tournament, and scored more than 40 points in only three of its first eight games during the season.

Senior Colleen Connors scored a team-high 17 points in Saturday’s 51-40 win over Oak Forest in the tournament finale. Freshman Vicki Swift scored 14 points in a 56-39 victory over West Chicago on Nov. 22.

Downers South defeated LT 37-19 on Dec. 19, after Lyons Township beat Queen of Peace — for the second consecutive year — with a 64-32 decision on Nov. 18.

Ashanti Davis scored 16 points in the season-opening win over Peace.

“This tournament was a great start for us,” said LT coach Katie Meyers. “The tournament showed that we have several scoring threats, and any given game different players can step up to score. The tournament was also beneficial in that we are able to isolate some current weaknesses. We can really concentrate on cleaning things up as we approach our conference opener.”

Lyons Township opened last season with a 2-6 record before winning back-to-back games for the first of two times.

LT was set to open West Suburban Silver play at Proviso West on Tuesday, and will visit Hinsdale Central at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

“I am excited to watch this program grow this year,” Meyers said. “As long as our girls remain hungry, and aggressive as athletes, we will continue to improve throughout the season. When our athletes are passive or laissez faire on the floor, we will have hard time finding success. This Thanksgiving tournament was a step in the right direction for us because, generally speaking, we played very aggressive.”

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