Boys Basketball

December 29, 2006

Stagg Handles Lane Tech

Stagg 45

Lane 33

Stagg showed Lane why it is the three time defending Luther North Holiday Tournament champion as it easily handled Lane 45-33 in the second round of the Luther North Holiday Tournament. Lane Tech started the game on a jumper by starting point guard John Holzman but shortly after that Stagg took a lead which they never relinquished. Stagg led 17-12 at the end of the 1st quarter and 29-18 at the half.  Stagg led Lane season scoring leader Shelton Jackson to 2 points in the first half and 6 points for the game. Meanwhile, Lane could not find much scoring from anyone else except for Guard Brian Hill who mustered 7 points to lead Lane in scoring.

Stagg was just too big and strong of a team for Lane to handle. Lane features only one player on it's roster over 6'3", in 6'7" starting center Lalo Bellamy. Meanwhile, Stagg features a plethora of tall players. At one point in the game Stagg featured a lineup of 4 players 6'4" and another player 6'9" in center Marty Strus. The distinct height advantage by Stagg led to an overwhelming favorite in rebounds over Lane and held Lane mainly to one shot on the offensive end. Lane is already not the best shooting team out there so the combination of a lack of rebounding and poor shooting led to Lane's demise tonight.

To Lane's credit, Lane did keep the game somewhat close until the 4th quarter. Lane held Stagg to 2 points in the third quarter but the only problem was that they scored only 3 points in the 3rd quarter.

Stagg's leading scorer was senior guard Jeff Miller who scored 19 points.

Lane will play host school Luther North on Friday, December 29 at 1:30pm in the consolation bracket.

"I am very pleased by our teams performance tonight", said Stagg head coach John Daniels "we've won this tournament three times in a row but Maine East, Zion Benton, and Mt. Carmel are all good teams, so it won't be easy." Daniels was referring to the three teams his team is most likely to face in the next two games.

Lane Tech center Lalo Bellamy is swarmed by Stagg defenders.