Does Lux have limits?
‘Anywhere he steps over half-court’ is fair game for Crown Point junior
For the first basket Friday, Crown Point junior AJ Lux pulled up from halfway between the 3-point arc and midcourt and nailed a 3-pointer.
That shot got the Bulldogs rolling toward a 67-36 victory against visiting Merrillville in a Duneland Athletic Conference game.
The 6-foot-5 guard shrugged off the distance.
“My teammates set me up,” Lux said. “I have the ability to knock down the shot. It just went in.”
Lux had a game-high 15 points for Crown Point (9-3, 2-0), including four 3-pointers. He added game-highs of 11 rebounds and five assists, despite sitting the final 4:12.
Lux has impressed senior point guard Drew Adzia, who added 12 points, including two 3-pointers, against Merrillville (5-6, 0-2).
“He’s gotten a lot taller, he’s gotten stronger, he’s been in the weight room all summer getting bigger,” Adzia said. “Having a guy who has the ability to knock down a 3-pointer from pretty much anywhere he steps over half-court, it’s a pretty nice thing to have.”
Senior guard Carter Delich added nine points for Crown Point, all in the first half, with two 3-pointers. The Bulldogs combined to hit 11 from 3-point range.
“Any guy on the team can knock down a 3-pointer any time,” Adzia said. “It’s just a matter of finding the guy with the hot hand, getting him the ball and having him let it fly. Whoever shoots it, we always think it’s going in.”
Crown Point packed in its defense, and Merrillville had trouble clicking on offense.
“All credit to them,” Merrillville coach Bo Patton said. “We have some issues bigger than basketball right now. As a staff, we have to keep coaching them up and stay positive. We’ll figure it out. We’ve been here before. I’ve been here before. It’s part of the game.
We’ll figure it out. Trust me.”
Senior guard Erickson Gibson scored 11 points to pace the Pirates, whose graduates include Crown Point assistant TJ Lux, AJ’s father. TJ Lux starred for Merrillville and Northern Illinois before coaching the Pirates for eight seasons through 2019.
“I grew up watching Merrillville play,” AJ Lux said. “It’s pretty special to go against them.”
Crown Point coach Clint Swan liked the way his team played. The Bulldogs’ unselfishness and shot selection stood out.
“I’m so thrilled with how we came out,” Swan said. “I was worried about this game all day, how we would handle their pressure, how we would be able to contain them on the boards. But everybody just did their jobs.”
The development of Lux, who entered the game averaging 18.2 points, hasn’t surprised Swan. In November, before the season even started, he spoke glowingly about the Division I prospect.
“He’s just really good,” Swan said. “Really good. I don’t know that I’ve had a player improve as drastically from one year to the next as AJ did from his sophomore year to his junior year. He’s doing things now he couldn’t even have dreamed of at the end of his sophomore year — the shots he’s making, his athleticism is better.
“He’s a shooter, but we’re going to rely on him to score at all three levels. He’d be one of those guys in the college game, at the end of the shot clock, you’d say, ‘Get us two points.’ ”