Lions work in progress
Published Thursday November 20th, 2008
The Leo Hayes Nashwaaksis Y's Men's Lions are more like cubs this season.
Only three players - including one starter - return from the Lions team that upset the Fredericton High School Cleve's Source for Sports Black Kats 70-57 in last year's sectional final, before falling 94-73 to the Riverview Royals in the provincial final at the Aitken Centre.
LHHS head coach John Hickey doesn't mind the challenge of turning these cubs into contenders.
"We're a little bit younger this year," Hickey said, "but I expect our guys to play the same way - to play with grit, to play with heart and to play with energy."
The six-team Lion's Den Invitational starts tomorrow, with FHS and Leo Hayes going head to head at 8 p.m. at the LHHS main gym.
"With only three returnees it will be a good learning experience for a lot of our guys," Hickey said. "As I've said with every team I've coached 'We're not playing to be the best team right now.' Everything's a building block for (playoffs in) February."
The Lions also play L'Odyssee of Moncton at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, hoping to advance to Sunday's 10 a.m. cross-over semifinals and the final at 3:15.
The Dalhousie Condors, Woodstock Thunder and Kennebecasis Valley Crusaders make up the other division.
Grade 11 guard Jason Daniels is the lone returning starter while guard Gordon Banks and forward Brett Hughes are the two seniors.
Hickey is counting on graduates from Dan Leonard's junior varsity Lions team to make a quick adjustment. They include Peter Reimer, Eric McGarry, Morgan Tompkins, Thomas Leonard and Brandon Bennett. All are in Grade 11.
Richie Wilkins, Josh Lafleur and Sam Goucher are the Grade 10 rookies.
"We've got a real good group of kids," he said. "This will be a fun year. They should learn a lot and it certainly should be rewarding."
Hickey hasn't settled on a starting five and probably won't for some time.
"We'll be all over the place," he said. "We're pretty balanced, so guys will be in and out. We want guys to be comfortable in a lot of different positions and different situations, especially early."
The Lions opened the Western Conference season with an impressive 86-46 road win over the Carleton North Stars on Tuesday, shooting 52 per cent from the floor.
Wilkins poured in 26 points for the Lions, who led 46-27 at the break. Reimer and Daniels added 14 and 11 points, respectively. Wade Lawrence countered with 19 points for Carleton North.
"What we use for goals is we really try not to focus on outcomes," Hickey said. "What we try to do is make sure we outwork every team. For stats, we keep track of our loose balls. So if we come out with more loose balls than the other team, then we should get more shots.
"Naturally, if I take twice as many shots as you, hopefully by the end of it, we shoot the same percentage and we win."
Hickey knows teams will be trying to key on Daniels, but he expects secondary scoring to emerge.
"We'll be very balanced," he said. "We played three games on the weekend, going 2-1, and we were balanced across the board. In not one game did anyone have more than 20 points."
If the shooters hit a cold spell, Hickey is banking on the team's tenacity on defence to help them hang around.
"Do we work them hard? Absolutely we work them hard," Hickey said. "And we expect a lot out of them. In turn, they now expect it out of themselves and each other, which is great."
Disabled
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
