Andrew’s Danny Laird said he didn’t have a great shooting season when he was a freshman.
With the help of his dad, Bill, Danny decided to do something about it.
“In the offseason, I would go in the gym every day,” he said. “A lot of credit goes to my dad. He gets me in the gym and rebounds for me. He’s a big part of it. He always gets me up in the morning.
“We get to the local rec center and get a couple hundred shots up every day.”
It has been like that for three years.
But the 6-foot-1 senior guard had the best quarter of his varsity career Tuesday night with four 3-pointers in the first, setting the tone for host Thunderbolts in a 71-57 nonconference victory over Lemont in Tinley Park.
Grantas Sakenis led Andrew (11-1) with 20 points, while Kaleb Simms had 19 and Laird added 17. Klaidas Paskauskas scored 10 points for Lemont (8-3), which had a six-game winning streak snapped.
Laird, who’s averaging six points this season, was on pace to score 48 after only eight minutes of play. He took it easy the rest of the way, attempting just four more shots, three coming on layups.
He didn’t feel the need to be greedy.
“After the first quarter, when I knocked a couple down, they started keying in on me and that allowed other people to get open,” Laird said. “That was my focus — to get others involved.”
That attitude didn’t surprise Andrew coach Justin Stirn.
“Statistically, he’s a kid who is not putting up a lot of points,” Stirn said of Laird. “But he does a lot of other things that are invaluable. He takes charges. He shares the ball really well.
“He hits four threes (Tuesday) and continues to share the ball. That’s who he is. He’s a very unselfish kid. He also knows the game. He knows he hit four threes and his thought is, ‘How do I get my teammates involved?'”
Stirn is glad to have Danny around as much as he enjoyed having Bill Laird on Andrew’s coaching staff for seven years until Laird retired.
“He was invaluable as far as stuff I’ve learned from him during the time we coached together,” Stirn said.
When Laird wasn’t shooting from long range against Lemont, he would fake shots and try to get the ball to Sakenis, a 6-10 senior center.
“He has a good shot, obviously, and he gets the team going a lot,” Sakenis said. “He also has a lot of good defensive skills.”
Laird doesn’t mind feeding the ball to Sakenis.
“It’s always nice to play with a kid who is 6-10, especially at the high school level,” Laird said. “He can always just take over a game. It’s easy to get him the ball.
“He boxes them out and seals them in, and you can just throw it up there and he grabs it. He always gets the crowd going.”
Lemont coach Rick Runaas, who said he has been coaching in the area for 19 years, had never stepped foot into Andrew’s gym until Tuesday.
“It wasn’t very hospitable,” Runaas said. “We got out to the lead early and then they just overwhelmed us. I thought they were very sharp and very crisp.
“When their kids were open, they made shots.”
That included Laird, who is not getting college looks yet but is crossing his fingers.
“I don’t know if I’ll keep playing or not — I want to see how this season goes,” Laird said. “My options are open.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.