RallyNorth.net

Sat, Mar 03, 2018 04:00 PM @ Lawrence

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
St. John's	15	16	16	17	64
Lawrence	20	16	31	13	80

Reynoso, Lawrence get revenge, dunk St. John's Prep

LAWRENCE — Luis Reynoso knew that something was right. He just felt good for some reason.

“Even from being down (in the locker room) before the game, I just felt it,” said the 6-foot-4 Lawrence High junior.

Whatever he felt, the Lancers had better find a way to bottle it up moving forward.

Behind what Reynoso called his best game of the year, No. 2 Lawrence easily ran past No. 7 St. John’s Prep, 80-64, in Saturday’s Division 1 North quarterfinal. He finished with a game-high 33 points and 12 rebounds, made some nifty assists, had a couple of big blocks on defense, added a handful of steals and he even took a charge.

Basically, Reynoso was an unstoppable force for the Lancers (20-2).

“He’s a gifted, talented, special young man,” said Lawrence coach Raymond Nunez. “You can tell he’s really committed to making himself better. He has the potential to just impact the game in all areas. That’s a tribute to his gifts, but also his IQ for basketball is pretty strong as well, as he demonstrated today.

“I think that he was in tune to making sure this Lawrence team moves on to the next game.”

After earning the MVC Large regular-season championship, the Lancers continued to make their city proud yesterday in front of an estimated crowd of about 1,500.

“They come together, they like being around each other and they like to perform for each other,” said Nunez. “It’s a unified team that has a goal to move on to the next game and really represent the city of Lawrence in a positive light.”

The raucous crowd certainly helped Reynoso.

“Yeah, my adrenaline was crazy,” he said. “I felt like I could do anything, to be honest.”

Saturday’s win also avenged Lawrence’s 97-92 overtime loss to the Prep (16-6) during the Commonwealth Motors Christmas Classic. The Lancers gave away a fourth-quarter lead during that December game, but they weren’t going to let that happen again.

“It feels great,” said Reynoso. “You know, everybody came out fighting. Nobody wasn’t playing defense and nobody was giving up. We just played our hearts out.

“We only lost two games this season, but we wanted to be undefeated. We just wanted revenge.”

Only up 36-31 at the half, Lawrence took the game over in the third quarter.

Reynoso was a force down low, but junior guard Chris Ruiz was money from outside. After a monster dunk in the first half, Ruiz (18 points) drilled four 3-pointers in the second half to help the Lancers pull away.

Lawrence outscored the Eagles 31-16 in the third quarter to take a 20-point lead into the fourth. From there, the Lancers just ran out the clock.

“I really didn’t tell them anything (at halftime),” said Nunez. “They said themselves that they’re going to go out and play.”

Reigning Eagle-Tribune MVP Juan Felix Rodriguez chipped in 16 points, and Jaden Castillo added seven. Christian Kinsley knocked down a pair of 3s, Miguel Camacho nearly had an impressive, acrobatic put-back before getting fouled on the way up and Angel Vasquez came off the bench and played solid defense.

For the Prep, senior Tommy O’Neil finished his career with a 19-point, 8-rebound performance, and both Nate Hobbs and sophomore Jarnel Snow-Guzman had 16 points.

The Lancers have earned the right to play another game, and that will be against No. 3 Cambridge. And that’s what they’re most excited about.

“It feels great because it’s been a long time since Lawrence made it this far,” said Reynoso.

That would be 2011, to be exact, when Lawrence made the Division 1 North finals, falling to ... eventual state champ St. John’s ... at the Garden.

Lawrence 80, St. John’s Prep 64

Division 1 North QuarterfinalsSt. John’s (64): Jarnel Snow-Guzman 5 5-6 16, Christian Plourde 0 0-0 0, Matt Relihan 2 1-2 6, Nate Hobbs 7 1-4 16, Tommy O’Neil 8 3-3 19, Patrick Sweetnam 1 1-2 3, Christian Lamers 0 0-0 0, Will Batchelder 1 0-0 2, Kairo Ovalle 1 0-0 2. Totals 25 11-17 64

Lawrence (80): Luis Reynoso 12 6-8 33, Cristian Kinsley 2 0-0 6, Sebastian Dilone 0 0-0 0, Jaden Castillo 3 1-4 7, Juan Felix Rodriguez 6 3-3 16, Chris Ruiz 7 0-0 18, Miguel Camacho 0 0-0 0, Angel Vasquez 0 0-0 0, Erick Garcia 0 0-0 0, Brian Martir 0 0-0 0, Alesandi Cruz 0 0-2 0. Totals 30 10-19 80

3-pointers: LAW — Ruiz 4, Reynoso 3, Kinsley 2, Rodriguez; SJP — Snow-Guzman, Relihan, Hobbs

St. John’s (16-6): 15 16 16 17 — 64

Lawrence (20-2): 20 16 31 13 — 80

Additional stories:

• Reynoso the man, Lawrence gets revenge on St. John's Prep