Boys Basketball: Lyons sticks with the plan

Updated: November 18, 2011 6:57PM

Lyons Township’s formula for winning the West Suburban Silver has become a familiar one.

In each of the last two years, the Lions have relied on a dominant senior class of starters to win in the conference and beyond. LT owns a combined record of 23-1 during its two-year run as conference champion. The Lions were a runaway winner last season with a three-game lead over runner-up York. LT (26-3 last season, 12-0) went undefeated in the conference and wrapped up the title in its 10th conference game.

But after losing its top seven players to graduation, the Lions’ conference title defense could be a rougher ride this season.

The top returnee is guard Kenneth Smith, who leads this year’s seniors in minutes played from a year ago. But Smith did not come close to logging serious time on the floor with last year’s lineup, which included Illinois State freshman Nick Zeisloft, Spencer Mahoney (Valparaiso), who was a starting shortstop on the Class 4A state champion baseball team and Nick Burt, who has joined Division III power Washington University’s basketball team in St. Louis.

Can this year’s seniors win like the program’s seniors of the last few years?

“Even two years ago, three of our five starters were seniors. The year before that, they were four of our five starters,” LT coach Tom Sloan said. “Last year was more extreme. Our top seven receiving most of the minutes were seniors.”

Eventual Class 4A state champion Simeon beat LT 64-51 in a sectional semifinal to end the Lions’ 16-game win streak.

LT has gone 52-5 the last two years. The new crop of seniors includes 6-foot-2 Matt Robare, guard Joe Carroll, 6-4 Chris Antalek, guard David Reed and 6-4 Jake Dilcher.

After Smith, only Robare and Reed were regulars off the bench. Robare was a member of the state championship baseball team as an outfielder-pitcher and Reed was a reserve defender in the fall for the soccer team, which lost to eventual state champion Morton in double overtime in the sectional semifinal.

“This group of seniors (gets along) very well,” Sloan said. “They take it as a challenge. There is a lot of pride to be in the basketball program at Lyons Township.”

The Lions open the season at their own Thanksgiving tournament. The team was set to host Argo on Nov. 23 and then plays Fenwick Friday and Morton Saturday.

“I said to the team, ‘You can compete with anybody on the schedule. If you play well, you’ll probably win. You can play with anybody on the schedule, but you could lose to anybody on our schedule,’” Sloan said.

The top newcomers are 6-3 Chris O’Reilly, guard Jarryd Heath, guard Jemari Burks, 6-2 Zack Mahoney and guard Connor Onion. Mahoney and Onion were the starting quarterbacks for the football team. Mahoney has yet to return to the basketball court while recovering from a rib injury in the Lions’ Class 8A quarterfinal loss at Loyola. He is expected to begin practicing soon.

Burks, a receiver on the football team, had his own injury problems during football. He took a few days off after the football season ended and only recently returned to basketball practice. Sloan expects him to be one of the basketball team’s top defenders.

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