The Lake Land College (LLC) men’s basketball team under the tutelage of Coach Julian Larry and his assistants, Dave Earp, Brian Egejuru and Chad Graves, finished the 2023-24 season with a 19-12 record, a 61.3% winning percentage. The Lakers were 10-6 in the Region 24 Conference, were 10-4 at home, 7-6 on the road and 2-2 in neutral site games.
The 19-12 mark was the men’s best record since the 2013-14 season when they finished with a 22-9 mark. However, the conclusion of this past season ended in a downer when they were routed by the John A. Logan College Volunteers, 91-64, at the conference tournament at Rend Lake College in Ina, IL., which ended the Lakers’ season prematurely.
The biggest highlight of the season was when the Lakers caught the always tough Volunteers in a down season, sweeping both regular season games against them for the first time since the 1998-99 season. The Lakers won the first meeting on the road at Carterville, 81-74 before winning at home at the Laker Fieldhouse in overtime, 86-79 before losing to them in the first round of the conference tournament.
The Volunteers were an uncharacteristic 15-16 on the season after being defending national champions the previous season and consistently the conference and nation’s top team in the community college level.
Coach Egejuru emphasized that the most memorable part of the season was, “When we (Lakers) swept John A. Logan College in the regular season for the first time in a long time, especially at home in overtime. It was a close game throughout. In addition, we were All-Academic All-American with the highest GPA in men’s basketball history in 20 years.”
Egejuru mentioned, “Aaron Davis, Tyler Chapman and Sean DeKovachich were part of the All-Academic All-American team that greatly contributed to the academic success of the men’s basketball team. Additionally, since Davis and Chapman were captains and leaders of the team, they held each player accountable, and the coaching staff didn’t have to do much. They set the tone and the whole team followed them.”
Egejuru highlighted the strengths of the team last year were, “The team playing together and functioning as a family unit. The players buying into what Coach Larry and I were talking about and want for the team as well as playing hard on a consistent basis.”
Egejuru explained that the weakness of the team last year was, “Experience. We had 13 freshmen out of 16 total players. This year, we have a lot of experience.”
Come and watch the men’s basketball team play at the Fieldhouse for this upcoming season as they plan to improve from last year and win the conference tournament and make it to the national tournament.
The first home game will be on Friday, November 1 as they will host the Lincoln Land College Loggers. On the weekend of November 9 and 10, the team will host the Laker Classic as they will play the Oliver-Harvey College Purple Panthers on the 9th and the Jefferson College (MO) Vikings on the 10th. The biggest home game of the season will be John A. Logan College, which is on Saturday, Jan. 11 at 3 p.m.
