LT Girls Basketball Opens Strongly

First year head Coach Katie Meyers began her coaching career with a comfortable win Friday evening as Lyons overcame Queen of Peace, 60-37, in the LT Invitational Tournament.

"We feel good, it's definitely a step in the right direction," Meyers said. "But, we weren't capitalizing on a lot of our positives. We have a lot to work on, but the girls should be proud of tonight."

Despite the lopsided final scoreline—which earned the Lions victory in their 2010 season opener—the game was mistake-ridden from both sides, especially early on.

"In the beginning of the game, I think we were very sloppy because of first game nerves," Lyons senior guard Lindsay Esposito said. "We have a lot to improve on and we know what we have to do to win the upcoming games of the tournament. We need to come out in the beginning ready to play."

The nerves were indeed evident in LT's play, as they were out-rebounded and out-hustled for much of the first half. In addition, starters Esposito and senior Riley Donovan fell into foul trouble prior to the halfway interval.

Meyers admitted that her halftime talk to the squad was frank.

"I told them, pretty aggressively, that they weren't giving 100 percent effort," Meyers said. "We weren't rebounding; we weren't chasing the ball. There was an improvement in the second half, but we still need to be better."

For Queen of Peace, the first half was characterized by lackadaisical shot attempts and, quite noticeably, an inability to make free throws.

"We shoot 50 free throws per day, and we strive to make 75% of them," head Coach Rick Federici said. "We should at least be able to make 60% or so in games, but we missed seven or eight in the first quarter alone."

Luck didn't improve for the Burbank side in the second half as the Lions' defense tightened to allow only six points in the quarter and a mere 13 in the half.

Lyons scoring leaders included senior leaders Esposito and Donovan, who tallied 14 and 12 points, respectively. Davis and senior Hannah Drogosz came off the bench to score a combined 15 points for the Lions.

Along with balanced scoring, Donovan felt the team did put forward some notable bright spots.

"We had good chemistry most of the time and were able to hit out cutters," Donovan said. "We were able to communicate and get the job done in the end. We were a little scattered running through the plays but that will come in time, with practice."

Lyons, who faces Downers Grove South in round two of the LT Tournament Saturday, must improve in a single day, and Meyers conceded it wouldn't be easy.

"[Improving so quickly] will be very hard, honestly, but we'll hopefully get the first game jitters out of our system," Meyers said. "We have a lot of positives and we just need to keep practicing."

In other LT Tournament news, Prospect succumbed to a late fightback from West Chicago to relinquish a seven point lead with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, and ultimately lost, 54-49.