Boys Basketball: Lyons reaches Jack Tosh final, goes to 11-0 with win over St. Ignatius

Lyons' Connor Carroll

ELMHURST – The competition level continues to increase but the results haven’t changed for the Lyons boys’ basketball team.

Adding another chapter to their dominant start to the season, the Lions stormed into the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic final with a 66-47 semifinal win over St. Ignatius Thursday in Elmhurst.

In returning to the championship for the second year in a row after falling to eventual state champion Glenbard West last winter, Lyons (11-0) also kept its undefeated record intact.

And the Lions did so once again in impressive fashion against a Wolfpack team that entered play with a 13-1 record and featured former Chicago Bull Kendall Gill’s son Phoenix Gill and George Mason commit Richard Barron. The Lyons have now won 10 games by 19 points or more.

“It’s super exciting,” said Connor Carroll, who shot 7 of 9 from the floor on his way to 18 points. “For two years having such a good group has been a lot of fun. Last year losing to Glenbard West was tough but we grew from that. Now we are right back at it. Our goal before the tournament was to get back to the finals and so far so good. Now let’s try to pull one out tomorrow.”

The Lions jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead and eventually built that margin to as many as 11 points in the opening half before a 12-4 spurt brought St. Ignatius back. But a three-pointer by Niklas Polonowski at the buzzer stopped that run and gave Lyons a 33-27 advantage at intermission.

Polonowski hit two more trifectas in the third quarter, on his way to a team-high 19 points, as the Lions pulled away to a 52-35 advantage. Jackson Niego also had eight of his 14 points in that period.

“We came into this tournament with the same intentions, to win it,” Polonowski said. “But we’ve been taking the games one at a time and going game by game has brought us here. Tomorrow is big. We are 11-0 now and to keep our undefeated season would be huge. We are going in with the same mentality that we had in the first game, the second game and then this game.

“It’s we over me always. I think the unselfish play we always play with helps with our success. Feeding off each other’s success is huge and the chemistry within our team is huge as well. I’ve been playing with these guys for over seven-plus years and it’s so much fun.”

Lyons made 55% of its field goals while out-rebounding the Wolfpack 30-21.

“These guys have a tremendous approach,” Lyons coach Tom Sloan said. “And they really like each other. They show up to practice and games every day, just looking to play together.

“Then on top of that, we have pretty good size and skill and they are willing to defend for the entire game. I don’t know what that all will mean in the end but when that shows up, it gives us a chance. We were facing a pretty big challenge tonight and I was very proud of our effort.”

Graham Smith contributed eight rebounds for the Lions, who will square off against Rolling Meadows at 6 p.m. on Friday. Niego added seven assists.

“I think it’s been two big things,” Carroll said about the team’s early-season success. “Obviously our defense. You’ve got to score to win but when we really lock in on defense, teams have trouble getting shots off. And the biggest part is our unselfishness. It’s such a close group and nobody worries about who scores. We genuinely want everyone else to succeed.”