One Hell of a Weekend

Words cannot describe the weekend that the Lyons Township varsity basketball team had. It all started Friday with the Blackout, students showed up at school sporting their newly purchased Blackout tee-shirts. To describe the shirts, they were black tees with white lettering, with LTHS in the same font as the the band AC/DC. The sight at school was just a preview of what we would witness later that night. As seven o’clock rolled around the North Campus Fieldhouse began to form it’s sea of black. The whole west end of the Fieldhouse was reserved for students only. LT’s goal was to fill the entire west end bleachers and they would. Nearly 4,000 fans filed into the Fieldhouse on this brisk night smashing expectations. About ten minutes before tip off the Student Section Leaders, cheerleaders, and assistant coaches passed out 1,500 black rally towels to the students. The view from the press box was incredible, rally towels circling the air, the buzz of excitement coming from the students, and faces of the LT players hoping to push their perfect season even further. As the game started the opposing Oak Park River Forest Huskies (13-4) jumped out to an early lead that would be held up to the closing moments. Lyons Dan Lalonde, Jack Tosh Tournament MVP, scored no points until the 4th quarter. The Huskies were trying to play spoiler to LT’s perfect season in front of the 4,000 fans in black. With about four minutes left in the game the Lions trailed by four until the man of the hour, Dan Lalonde, came alive. Lalonde scored all of his 13 points in the 4th quarter. With 18 seconds left on the clock, OPRF trailed by three, their inbound pass went to Jordan Foster, who put up a desperation three to try to knot the game up at 55 put the ball hit off the rim and LT scrambled for the rebound, LaLonde came up with ball and race down the end of the court and threw down a Thunderous tomahawk jam for good measure as time expired, which sent the fans screaming onto the court to lift up their prized player. For any of those privileged to listen to WLTL’s coverage of the Blackout, know how excited I was with the call. This game was by far the most electric and exhilarating game I have ever been privileged to call in my four years in the sports department. This pushed LT’s perfect season to 15-0, but their weekend wasn’t finished yet. Coach Sloan of the Lions received terrible news early Saturday morning. Lalonde was taken to hospital with stomach problems and would be unable to play their game later that night against the hated Red Devils. Inside sources say Dan has appendicitis and can be out for two weeks. But the Lions weren’t going to let this hinder another epic performance in front of the home crowd. The Lions had Central looking for exit door early on and won the 59-42. This game was a rematch of last years Blackout. In conclusion the Lions are still perfect with a record of 16-0. They play again this Friday night at Proviso West. Proviso beat the Lions in a heart breaker last year, so the Lions will be looking for revenge. The following weekend is Pack the Place so be sure cheer on the Lions and if your unable to attend the game listen to WLTL 88.1 FM La Grange as we will be calling the game as usual.

Joe Fabiano
Sports Director

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