Ten games into their season, the Lake Country Lutheran Boys Varsity Basketball Team holds a 4-1 conference record (4-6 regular season record), good enough to have them at third in the conference standings behind Brookfield Academy and Heritage Christian.
The Lightning are led by Sam Hans in both points and rebounds, with the junior forward averaging 18.5 points and 8.1 boards.
“It seems like his range looks the same if he’s shooting from half court and from the free throw line, and it’s great because it spreads the whole thing out,” Coach Newman smiled, describing Hans’ terrific shooting ability. “They have to guard him all the way out to the volleyball line, so if they stretch out there, it actually opens the whole middle of the floor.”
Another junior, guard Carter Leibham, leads the assisting and rebounding categories, averaging 2.6 and 1.9, respectively.
“We’ve got good athletes, three point guards that we can play, and we play 10 guys in our rotation.” explained Newman.
While the LCL boys team is under .500 on the season so far, all of the team losses have been to impressive opponents, such as D1 program Kettle Moraine. Results aren’t always immediate, but the upside for the rest of the season is very promising for the Lightning.
“I think that we have a ton of depth, so our young guys get a little less young each time they play. They start to figure things out a little bit and we’ve committed to playing them. I just think we’re going to be really good by the end of the year, in conference games and non-conference games,” Newman added.
“We have 38 basketball opportunities left in the regular season, between games and practice, so we’ll work on a lot of things here and these guys will get experience. We’re not going to get tired.”