The Lake Land Lakers men’s basketball team under Coach Julian Larry finished the 2023-24 season with a 19-12 record, a 61.3% winning percentage. The Lakers were 10-6 in the conference, were 10-4 at home, 7-6 on the road and 2-2 in neutral site games.
The 19-12 record by the Lakers is the best record since the 2013-14 season when they finished with a 22-9 record. However, doing that season, they lost in the first round of the conference tournament at the Rend Lake College at Ina, IL to the Olney Central Blue Knights by the score of 69-66.
The biggest highlight of the season was when the Lakers swept the John A Logan College Volunteers in two regular season games for the first time since the 1998-99 season, winning the first game on the road at Carterville, IL by the score of 81-74 on Sat., Jan. 20th and winning the second game, 86-79, in overtime at the Laker Fieldhouse on Sat., Feb. 24th.
Unfortunately, the Lakers would lose to the Volunteers in the first round of the conference tournament at Rend Lake College at Ina, IL on Monday, Mar. 11th by the score of 91-64, which ended the Lakers season prematurely.
The Lakers longest winning streak of the season is five games in which they won all three December games and the first two games in January as they got off to a hot start on the season with an 11-3 record.
This season, Sean DeKovachich led the team in scoring with 14.7 points/game. Tyler Chapman was next in scoring with 13.2/game and Aaron Davis with 11.5. In rebounding, DiAri Duncan led the team with 6.3 per game followed by Salah Halawani with 6.0. Both Brysen Bond and Chapman had 4.6 per game. Chapman led the team in assists with 4.7 per game along with 1.3 steals.
In regards to the strengths of the team, Larry mentioned “Hard work. The guys worked hard during the season They learned how to stick together as a team during both good and bad times.”
Regarding weaknesses of the team, Larry stated “Injuries. Staying healthy was our weakness. At one point during the season, we had eight guys out (out of fifteen players on the roster). It may it pretty tough for our program.”
Larry revealed “our team has the highest-Grade Point Average (GPA) in twenty years with 3.2. We accomplished a lot of things on and off court. Our biggest highlights of the season was sweeping John A. Logan College and having a high GPA.”
Let’s continue to support the men’s basketball for the upcoming 2024-25 season as they work cohesively as a team and have a shot at their third ever national championship with no injuries or major injuries along the way. The team previous won in their inaugural season in 1967 and 1975.
