York can flat-out shoot the basketball this year and nobody shoots it any better than Dukes’ freshman Nick Kosich.
“He might be the best shooter I’ve ever had, period,” York coach Vince Doran said. “And I’ve had some good ones. There are times in practice when he doesn’t even hit the rim when he’s shooting.”
Kosich buried three 3-pointers among his 11 points during York’s 68-52 win over visiting Lyons on Friday, Dec. 4. Kosich has acclimated to varsity nicely, thus far.
“Playing varsity is all I expected it to be and then some,” he said. “I knew it would be a lot faster than I was used to and that guys would be a lot stronger than me. And I knew I’d have to pick and choose when to shoot, when not to, and things like that.”
Lyons also has a quality freshman in Tyrese Shines, who led the Lions with 14 points. But the difference in the West Suburban Silver season opener, however, was the senior grit and hustle that York showed from start to finish.
York’s swarming defenders consistently forced turnovers from the outset and the Dukes led 21-12 after the first quarter. Lyons coach Tom Sloan’s boys showed good fight as the game progressed but a young team is still taking strides to consistently meet the level of intensity that varsity basketball demands.
“Turnovers and giving up layups, those are killers,” Sloan said. “And they’re not the biggest team we’ve played, but they play extremely hard and have a lot of experience. We don’t have a ton of experience and guys are still figuring out exactly how hard you have to play in a varsity game.”
Junior Connor Niego is Lyons’ lone returning starter and he sees hope despite their 1-4 start to the season.
“As the season progresses and guys get that varsity experience, they’ll understand that you have to turn it on earlier,” Niego said. “They’ll get there. I love the team chemistry and it’s a great group of kids.”
The 6-foot-8 Niego showed skill and athleticism throughout the contest but the Dukes managed to limit him to 11 points. Noah Niego also scored 11 for the Lions.
“Connor was more assertive around the basket in the second half and he should lead us, but he’ll have a bull’s-eye on his back this year,” Sloan said. “He’s very skilled and he’s starting to fill out and starting to take advantage of his size.”
The Dukes’ Ryan Camp scored all of his team-high 13 points after halftime, Nick Trapani scored eight, Jack Julian had 11 and Patrick Grabowski scored nine.
Of the seven Dukes (4-1) who scored in the win, every one hit at least one 3-pointer.
“We’ve got seven kids that can shoot threes pretty consistently,” Doran said. “We’ll have nights that we don’t shoot it as well as we did tonight, but our defense can also create some of our offense.”
And when the Dukes are shooting it well, the best shooter of the bunch might be a freshman.
“Probably about fourth or fifth grade, I started launching threes in my travel team games, then my junior high games,” Kosich said. “And when it’s falling, it feels nice.”
Gary Larsen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.