TURNING POINT
Eagles’ Patterson has picked up his offense since becoming a combo guard
With Class 2A looking wide open for postseason play, it was time for Lake Station to give Brian Patterson a new set of parameters for the season. Learn to play point guard or else. OK, maybe it wasn’t an ultimatum quite like that.
But Eagles coach Bob Burke insisted that Patterson learn to do his share of the ball handling. Patterson had always played the role of high scoring off-guard. He averaged around 17 points per game last year playing with senior Dwayne Haden. Haden was an assist machine, doling out around eight per game.
Patterson is now sharing the point guard duties with Kyle Gooch, the backup point guard from last season.
His new role, playing with the ball in his hands at least half the game, has allowed him to score even more.
Patterson is averaging 22 points, five rebounds and five assists.
“This is the first time I’ve coached him that we have relied on him to be the primary ball handler,” Burke said.” He has done a nice job.”
He has also done a nice job getting to the basket for the Eagles.
After spending most of the summer working out with a prep school that he had planned on enrolling in, Patterson had a change of heart and decided to return to Lake Station just before school started. Patterson said he left because he wasn’t sure how it would work out for him with Hayden gone.
“I felt like it would be a lot of pressure for me without our point guard,” he said. “In the end, I just felt like it was better to come back. I felt like we could be a really good team.”
When he started practicing with the team in the fall, Burke said he was finally serious about getting stronger.
“He has done a good job of going to the basket,” Burke said. “Last year, there were times when he was kind of tired at the end of games. We pounded into his head that he had to go to the weight room to get better.”
The Eagles are 4-4 with games looming against Kouts on Friday and undefeated Morgan Township on Saturday.
After starting 3-0, they have dropped four of five. The losses came against some of the toughest teams on their schedule — Bishop Noll, Gary Lighthouse, Griffith and Morton.
Because Noll isn’t the juggernaut it was last year, the scenery for 2A looks appetizing for a handful of teams.
That includes Lake Station, which has eight seniors.
“We have a lot of confidence,” Patterson said. “We think we can be pretty good.”
If Noll is the measuring stick for this year too. Than they still have work to do. They lost by eight to the Warriors at home.