Lyons didn’t get off to a very good start Friday night in its West Suburban Silver game at Oak Park-River Forest.
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The Lions found themselves trailing by seven points with three minutes to play in the first quarter. But OPRF then went the next 13:20 without scoring a basket as the Lions exploded on a 22-2 run en route to a 60-51 victory.
“They hit a couple shots early and got in a nice rhythm but then our guys settled in,” Lyons coach Tom Sloan said. “The coaches and the players figured out how they were trying to score, where they were trying to get the ball and who was a threat from what spot. It was a lot of good discipline, getting to the right spot at the right time for our guys.”
Lyons senior Harrison Niego played a big role in turning the 11-4 deficit into a 26-13 lead for Lyons (8-1, 3-0). Twelve of his game-high 21 points came during that spurt. Niego also had a couple nice assists off fast breaks that effectively ended any hopes of an upset by the Huskies (5-3, 1-1).
“Part of my role is attacking the rim,” Niego said. “Coach and the guys need to me to attack the rim and I put emphasis on that.”
The Lions led 24-13 at halftime and 39-26 heading into the fourth. OPRF remained pesky and was able to trim the lead to eight points several times in the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as it would get.
“I got in foul trouble and their zone just got us when we were on offense,” said Huskies guard Dallis Flowers. “We just need to bounce back from this.”
Flowers finished with 21 points while teammate Breshawn Wilkerson had 14. Connor Niego added 14 points for Lyons.