Lake View Defeats Antioch 56-49 at Elgin

[Preview of this week’s Inside—Booster article.]

By Jack Lydon

Lake View basketball is on the rise. The Wildcats defeated the Antioch Sequoits 56-49 at the Elgin Holiday Tournament Friday afternoon. The Wildcats (7-5) and Sequoits (2-10) started slowly. It was 8-2 Antioch at the end of the first quarter. That did not last.

“Whenever we pressure the ball, it opens up the floor. Whenever we are low energy, we pick it up with the press,” said Lake View junior Tysean Davis, a transfer from Uplift. The Wildcats dialed up the pressure with a smothering full court press on the Sequoits early in the second quarter and scored 43 points in the second and third quarters combined for a 15-point lead at the start of the fourth.

“We knew that was going to come. We played them in the summer. They turned the heat on in the second quarter. And obviously, we handled it with more poise in the second half,” said Antioch head coach Sean Connor.

Don’t let the Sequoits record fool you. Coach Connor, a long-time sophomore coach at area powerhouse DePaul Prep, has his Sequoits in a rebuilding year but they are tough, athletic and well coached.

The Wildcats had a 15-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter which the Sequoits cut to four with about two minutes to play. However, not only can the Wildcats play defense, they can finish. Senior leader LeDarrell Goss El, himself a transfer from Perspectives, drained three free throws at the end to seal the victory of Lake View.

An impressive win for the Wildcats. Tysean Davis, credited by Coach Patterson on being the team’s best defender, lead all scorers with 25 points. The one-two punch of Tysean Davis and LeDarrell Goss El promises to make in interesting combo for the balance of the season.

“LeDarrell Goss El has been a great addition. He is leading the Red-North now in scoring. He is averaging about 19 points a game. He has a couple 28, 29-point games, but he has also had a nine-assist game,” Patterson said.

“Our goal when I got here was to move from the [Chicago Public League’s] White [division] to the Red. It took us four years to do it but we went undefeated last year in the White to advance to the Red,” Patterson added.  

Cognizant that Lake View High School is the oldest high school in the state of Illinois, having opened in 1874, and at that time with the City of Lake View was not even part of the City of Chicago, “I wanted to come to Lake View because they did not have a history of basketball excellence. I wanted to build that,” Patterson said.

The Wildcats are not just content with the move to the Red. They are right in the thick of things in CPL’s Red-North division with Lincoln Park, Whitney Young, Lane Tech, Payton, Amundsen, Northside and Taft. Despite losses to Lincoln Park and Lane, the Wildcats have the Payton, Amundsen and Whitney Young games circled on the calendar and are looking to firmly establish themselves in the Red. More than that, Coach Patterson is looking to build Lake View into a basketball school.

“I am looking forward to the second half of the season. And the Regional is in our favor. We are in 3A in the DeLaSalle Sectional. For our regional, we’ve got Schurz, King, and Hyde Park. None of those teams scare me,” Patterson said.

“It’s not like the past when we’ve had St. Ignatius, DePaul Prep. No way in the world were we gonna get past those guys but these teams, we feel like if we play like we are supposed to, we are going to be in the race. It would be the first regional championship in Lake View history.”

Lake View's Daniel Loza Scores 1000 Points

[Preview of my Inside-Booster story for this week.]

By Jack Lydon

It was a very good night at Lake View High School Thursday. The Wildcats defeated neighborhood rival Amundsen Vikings 74-66 to take the lead in the Chicago Public League’s White-North division on a night when the Wildcats and the Lake View school community celebrated senior guard Daniel Loza’s reaching 1000 points in his high school career. Daniel is likely to become the school’s points leading by the end of the season.

The moment wasn’t lost on Daniel, “DLo” as he is known. He wasn’t distracted by the celebration in his honor planned for after the game. He was focused on beating Amundsen. Focused on winning the school’s first conference championship in basketball.

DLo led his Wildcats scoring a career high of 32 points Thursday which included a remarkable eight three-point shots made. DLo is now the second highest point scorer in the history of Lake View High School which was established in 1874, making it the oldest public high school in the state of Illinois. The school existed before Lake View as part of the City of Chicago. 

“[Daniel Loza] is the model. When he leaves there will be a Daniel Loza Award because he has set the pace for how to do work,” said Lake View’s fourth year head coach Todd Patterson.

“He's really been working if I can say this on being a three-level scorer. That's what you saw today, him trying to score it all from the three levels. He hits the big threes, but he opens up the game up with [scoring inside and at the free throw line.]”

The school and the Friends of Lake View had arranged a celebration for Daniel’s achievement to be held after the game but there was a game to play first. The Wildcats faced off against neighboring Amundsen High School which is located just two miles north at Foster and Damen.

The Wildcats came into the game with a 9-8 record overall and a 7-0 record in the CPL White-North conference. The schedule that Lake View’s head coach Todd Patterson put together this year is tough with games against Lakes, Jacobs, Notre Dame, St. Viator, West Chicago and Highland Park. These tough games got them ready for tough conference games like this one against Amundsen. A win against Amundsen would put them in a position where they are undefeated in the conference and would be promoted into the CPL’s Red Division next season.

But first the Wildcats had to deal with a very talented Amundsen squad that came into the game 11-2, and 7-0 in the conference.

The Vikings jumped out to an early eight point lead late in the first quarter. But the Wildcats hung around until midway through the second quarter when DLo asserted himself. Hard screens and quick jumpers by DLo lead to four three-point bucket by DLo erasing the Amundsen lead. That second quarter 14-3 run by the Wildcats flipped the script and launch the Cats toward the school’s first ever conference championship in basketball in the schools 150 years.

The leading scorer in school history at the moment is Octavius Parker, a 1999 graduate. Imariz Duran, a 2024 Lake View graduate leads all girls scoring, with over 1000 points. Loza is expected to pass Parker’s scoring total by the end of the year and be the leading scorer in school history.

Coach Patterson said after the game, “Daniel’s father passed away about five years ago. Daniel’s dad is alumni. His Mom is alumni. We’ve got a lot of motivation to get this done.”

The moment was not lost on DLo. Showing a maturity beyond his tender years, Daniel reflected on his years at and family connection with Lake View.

“It’s kind of crazy because when I came to Lake View, my mom had told me that a lot of my family members have went to Lake View, but I wasn't thinking it was a basketball school. I [thought] I needed to go to a school where there's gonna be basketball. When I first came here, there was no actual basketball coach. I told my mom that I might have to transfer. So I'll wait for him to come and then it was Coach Patterson. I had a good connection with him so I stayed.”

Now Daniel is the second leading scorer in school history.