Boys Basketball

January 12, 2007

Lakeview Wins First Battle Over Lane Tech to Avoid Red-North Basement

by: Neil Hernandez of www.LaneTechFan.com

Lakeview 62

Lane Tech 58

There’s a war raging on the north side basketball courts. The winners stay in the highly respected Red North conference. The loser, that is, the team that finishes in last place in the Red-North gets forced out of the Red-North and pushed into the Siberia known as the Blue-North with the likes of Amundsen and winless Sullivan. The Red-North is the more competitive of the two conferences and this year is filled with some pretty good darn basketball teams.

At the top of the Red-North is perennial power Von Steuben. How good is Von Steuben? Well, last week they beat class AA semi-finalist Marshall and fell in overtime to state ranked Crane in the finals of the Public League Holiday Tournament. Plus Von Steuben got boosted this year by the transfer of Michael Dinnuno a white kid from Lake Park.  Dinnuno is a sharp shooting guard that just signed to play basketball for Northern Illinois last week. Von has been good for the last several years with Coach Vince Carter running the show and they regularly get invited to play in the best tournaments. The last few years they’ve played in the Proviso West Holiday Tournament that includes the likes of basketball powerhouses St. Joseph. Proviso East, Whitney Young, New Trier and company.

But, Von Steuben is not the sole basketball power in the Red-North. This year Senn has emerged as Von’s biggest challenger. Senn lost an overtime game to Crane this year and have been impressive in winning the Stagg Thanksgiving Tournament over host Stagg and a 4^th place finish in the Centralia Holiday Tournament. Senn is led by 6’7” center Byron Pickens.

It appears the other player in the Red-North this year will be Foreman. Foreman has played well this year so far and won the Consolation Bracket of the Chicago Public League Holiday Tournament last week.

At the bottom half of the Red-North standings are Lakeview, Lane, and Taft. All we’re winless with 0-2 records prior to the Lane/Lakeview game. That all changed with Lakeview’s 62-58 triumph over Lane Tech last Tuesday. Lake View (11-5, 1-2) was led by Jeremy Dunn 19 pts and Terrence McGowan 12 pts.

Lakeview is now 1-2 in the conference while Lane is 0-3. Lane faces Taft this Thursday at Taft.  Taft will not be a cakewalk. Taft has played surprisingly well this year. Last weekend Taft lost an overtime game to neighbor Maine South of the Central Suburban League The loser will be winless in conference play and will be the favorite to be sent down to the Blue-North. Most likely to take their place will be Northside Prep (12-4, 3-0) who is undefeated in Blue-North conference play after a big 70-61 win over Amundsen last Tuesday.

Boys Varsity Basketball Head Coach Leroy Jarka has his team in a must win situation vs. Taft this Thursday (January 11) to prevent Lane from being in last place in the tougher than expected Red-North conference. (www.LaneTechFan.com photo)