The boys varsity basketball team opened up their season with three games at home as a part of LT’s annual Thanksgiving tournament. Although the Lions dropped all three games, Head Coach Tom Sloan and his boys took away lots of positives from the three losses.

“We’ve improved a ton from the first game,” Sloan said. “Right now we just want to keep getting better every day and I felt like in between game one and two we had a significant improvement.”

LT’s first loss came by a score of 59-52 against Plainfield North in a game where the Lions struggled to score, Sloan said. Their next two games were against Maine South and Hinsdale South, who both came into the season ranked in top 20 in the state. The Lions, however, found themselves with a chance late in the games to grab their first win. They ended up falling in the two close matchups by a combined margin of only nine points.

LT enters the season as a team with not too much varsity experience, Sloan said. Not only that, but the team lost both Ryan Barker ‘18 and Jack Denning ‘19 in the offseason due to injury. Because of these factors, LT hopes to improve naturally as more games are played.

“Ryan and Jack were a big part of what we did this summer,” Sloan said. “With them being pulled out of the mix, we have to get guys to step forward that we didn’t playing as big of a role. I’m thinking that we are going to see really big jumps as we continue to play more games.”

Returning members from last year’s varsity squad include Nolan Niego ‘19, Tyrese Shines ‘19, and Lazarius Williams ‘18. All three players will look to step forward and lead the young LT team to a successful season.

“Everybody needs to step up,” Shines said. “We’re all one team and we’re all depending on each other to make plays.”

Niego, who is now in his third year on the varsity team, believes that the team should be taking things one game at a time.

“This season is a journey,” Niego said. “Our goal is to improve each and every game. The winning will take care of itself.”

On Nov. 25, LT picked up their first win of the season by beating Glenbard North 77-38. Next up for the Lions will be a matchup tonight against Riverside-Brookfield at the UIC Pavillion. The game comes as a part of the Chicago Elite Classic, a two-day event that plays host to 24 different high school basketball teams. Like LT, the Bulldogs of Riverside-Brookfield will enter the game with an overall record of 1-3.

Further down the road, LT will host Glenbard West on Feb. 16 for the annual Blackout game in the North Campus fieldhouse.

“Everybody is super pumped for the Blackout game,” Niego said. “It is always one of the highlights of the season. Nothing compares to the energy brought by the students.”