Smith leads Lions to upset over Huskies
By George M. Wilcox gwilcox@pioneerlocal.com January 14, 2012 1:04AM
Lyons Township's Chris O'Reilly avoids Oak Park-River Forest's Thomas Ross as he goes to the basket. | Steve Johnston~for Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 20, 2012 8:20AM
Kenneth Smith has been a big part of the reason for Lyons Township’s revival this season.
On Friday night, the senior guard scored a career-high 28 points as LT pulled of its biggest upset of the season with a 65-53 West Suburban Silver victory over visiting Oak Park-River Forest.
The Lions handed the Huskies their first conference loss to set up a showdown Jan. 20 when Glenbard West plays at OPRF in a battle for first place.
Smith scored 15 points in the first half to nearly outscore the Huskies at halftime. LT led 36-19. Moments earlier, the Lions took their biggest lead of the game, 36-17, on Smith’s running jumper with 54 seconds before the break.
LT (6-9, 2-2) won its fourth consecutive game, a remarkable run for a team that started the season 1-7 with a seven-game losing streak after beating Argo in the season opener.
“We are a very unselfish team,” Smith said. “We’re very confident. Oak Park is a great team. They were undefeated in the conference. Every game we go in to, we’re the underdog.”
OPRF (10-4, 4-1) lost for the third time in its last four games. The Huskies went 5-1 without Bradley-bound guard Ka’Darryl Bell, but haven’t been able to find consistency since Bell’s return. LT led 23-12 after the first quarter.
“That’s the most points we’ve given up (in a quarter), since I can’t remember,” OPRF coach Matt Maloney said. “That’s this year, or any year.
“We had two of the best days of practice this week and yesterday was one of the worst. You’ll play how you practice.”
The Huskies’ top two scorers, Bell and Gabe Levin, did not score in the first quarter. Levin (10 rebounds) finished with 16 points, 12 in the second half, and Bell had seven. The two combined for five points in the first half.
OPRF’s Alex Nesnidal had 15 points, including four three-pointers, and Jakari Cammon added 11 points.
LT was aided by Jarryd Heath’s 12 points off the bench on 4 of 6 shooting from the three-point arc. Smith shot 10 of 17 from the floor and 8 of 9 from the free-throw line.
“We’re very confident,” Heath said. “We feel we can beat anyone. We’re playing at a very high level.”
The Huskies rallied in the third quarter by outscoring LT 20-10. The Lions ended the threat in the fourth quarter with an 11-point run and by scoring 14 of 20 points to end the game.
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