By Bobby Narang
Back in late December, the York High School boys basketball team hit a snag.
The York Dukes opened up the 51st Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic by losing on a buzzer beater to Batavia in the first round.
By falling into the consolation bracket, the Dukes battled back by defeating Andrew, Lake Zurich, and knocked off Oswego to win the consolation championship. Since the loss to the Bulldogs, the Dukes have been on a roll.
And Friday’s win at Lyons was another example of the Dukes quest for a memorable season. The Dukes held the host Lions to under six points a quarter in pulling out a 40-23 victory in LaGrange.
York junior guard Sawyer Asgedom sparked the victory with his shooting and tough defense.
Asgedom made three 3-pointers and scored all nine of his points in the second quarter to lead the Dukes past the Lions. The Dukes (15-3, 5-0 West Suburban Silver) defeated Stevenson 64-48 on Saturday.
Against Lyons, Asgedom was the sparkplug.
“I’m just happy to help out the team wherever I’m put at,” Asgedom said. “It was a good game and a good win. I was happy to help the team. It was a team performance. We got a lot of good stuff from everyone and we defended well.”
In the second quarter, Asgedom drilled a 3-pointer for a 13-7 lead, and added back-to-back 3s to push the advantage to 21-10.
“I felt good (shooting),” Asgedom said. “I wanted to shoot well and help the team. I’m trying to help wherever I can for the team.”
York coach Mike Dunn said Asgedom is playing smart and controlled basketball for his team this season.
“We had him up as a sophomore last year and he’s been really good at the two-guard or three-guard defensively,” Dunn said. “He hit some big shots off the bench today when we were struggling. We expect that from him.
“He’s got a great mentality and does whatever is necessary for the team. It’s great to have guys like him. This was a big win on their home floor. We played good defensively and took care of the ball at the end.”
The Lions (9-5, 4-1) had a putrid effort shooting the ball, finishing 5-for-29 on 3-pointers. Lyons senior guard Owen Carroll’s 3-pointer from the top of the key with just under a minute left in the game symbolized Lyons’ frustrating shooting, rolling in and out for another missed shot. The Lions averaged 5.8 points per quarter, and walked off the court in frustration for the final 10 seconds.
“York is very good on both ends of the floor,” Lyons coach Tom Sloan said. “They played very good defense. We missed a lot of shots. We had good players missing good shots and the ball didn’t go in. We also had some opportunities at the basket.
“We had free throws in the second half that we didn’t make. It was a low scoring game and they played deliberately, so every possession was valuable. We had defensive mistakes that were very costly and York capitalized and made some shots and were able to stretch it out.”