Lyons boys, girls double up on Dawson
LYONS >> In the waning days of the regular season, every victory can mean life or death for a team sitting on the postseason bubble. Lyons boys basketball saved its most thrilling victory for its last hurrah to put a small dent in Dawson’s chances of making the Class 3A state tournament.
The Lions needed two overtimes to finish the 74-69 job over the Mustangs, thwarting a blisteringly hot performance from Dawson’s Isaiah Tu. Dawson, prior to the contest, sat at No. 24 in CHSAA’S Selection & Seeding Index.
The state tournament bracket will be decided by the eight champions of each district tournament, which will happen next week, and be rounded out by the remaining top 24 teams according to CHSAA’S ranking system.
With Lyons moving to 7-12 and Dawson dropping to 9-10, both teams will now look for a run in district play in order to have a shot to move on to the bigger dance.
“We needed that win for playoff seeding, so we feel a lot more confident going into playoffs (the 3A district tournament). That was the first close game we’ve won all season, so it feels really good to pull it off,” Lyons junior Caleb Christiansen said. “We’ve practiced close-game scenarios at the end of practice and whatnot, so just being ready for that and everybody staying calm and collected really helped us.”
The contest saw no shortage of firepower, as Tu led the field and Dawson with 33 points and Christiansen followed his lead with 24 of his own for Lyons. Dawson enjoyed 15 more points from junior center Peter Ernst,
and junior Payton Bolkovatz secured another 16 for the Lions.
“I feel like I knew I was capable of doing it. It was just a matter of when I was going to do it. But you know, at the end of day, it doesn’t come down to how many points I score or why. It just comes down to the win and we didn’t get that today,” Tu said. “It’s a little bit of a setback, but nothing we can’t bounce back from.”
The Mustangs — read, Ernst — leaned on their size in the early minutes to build up an 11-3 lead, but the Lions quickly closed that gap with long-range shooting. They drained all 12 of their opening points from behind the arc, and trailed just 1312 heading into the second quarter. The teams continued to cut through each other’s zones throughout the next eight minutes until the half, when Dawson held a 27-24 advantage.
The Mustangs, powered by Ernst and Tu, blew the game wide open as soon as the clock restarted for the second half, when their halftime lead ballooned to 37-24. Slowly but surely, Lyons chipped away at that deficit, until a pivotal few seconds nearly flipped the script on the Mustangs.
After Bolkovatz drained a 3 at the 1:50 mark, shrinking Dawson’s lead to 55-50, Christiansen grabbed a steal on the Mustangs’ inbound attempt. He converted on an old-fashioned three-point play eight seconds following Bolkovatz’ dagger. The Lions tied the game at 55 with 70 seconds left in regulation on a midrange jumper from Davis Abernathy, forcing overtime.
Tu was a one-man show in the first extra period, scoring all of the Mustangs’ nine points. Dawson freshman point guard Milo Richtel had a chance to pad a two-point lead when the Lions sent him to the line at the 10.1-second mark. He missed the front end and made the second, but saw it called back for a lane violation.
The Mustangs committed one last foul near midcourt with 4.1 seconds left to gift Christiansen one last chance to ensure the game wouldn’t end in one overtime. He didn’t waste it. The Lyons tied things back up at 64-64 to force another OT, then relied on Christiansen, Paznokas and Abernathy to carry them to victory.
During the earlier girls game, senior Gemma Powell helped her Lions knock off some offensive rust en route to a 48-15 Lyons victory. Powell netted 13 of Lyons’ 22 points in the first half.
She ended her night, midway through the fourth quarter, with 26. The Lions ended their regular season with a 7-12 record.
“That was the goal tonight: go out and dominate. I’ve never lost to Dawson all four years of high school and I wasn’t about to start today,” Powell said. “I think having me and Marley (Chase) as their seniors, and Alondra (Brill), this year has just really helped them understand what it’s like to be a team and what it’s like to have strong leaders. I think that they’re going to carry that on well to next year, and that’ll help them a lot.”
Dawson, having worked all season with a small roster, will take the lessons incurred from a 6-12 regular season and try to put some things together for districts.
Both teams are on the outside looking in as far as making the 32-team girls’ tournament field, according to the Selection & Seeding Index.
“I think it pushed us a lot more. I don’t think of it on the negative side. I think we just had to push harder, work harder. I liked that we had a little, tight group because we could bond a little more,” Dawson senior Linda Buitron said. “I think it comes with work ethic and discipline.”