Patriots keeping defensive tradition alive

It was a defensive effort John Taylor could relate to.

It was also an offensive outburst that Kevin Stineman would have loved to have been a part of.

How nice that both former Stevenson stars - Taylor, the defensive stopper of the Patriots' 2007 Elite Eight team and Stineman, an electric scorer from the past two seasons - were able to witness their alma mater's picture-perfect victory firsthand Wednesday night.

Stevenson lit up the scoreboard Stineman-style while putting the clamps on Lakes Taylor-style to run away with an 80-34 victory in the Bison Classic at Buffalo Grove.

The Patriots, who turned a 16-point halftime advantage to 33 points by the end of the third quarter, move to 3-0 on the season and Lakes drops to 0-2.

"This is like a homecoming here," said Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose as he watched Taylor and Stineman file out of his locker room after the game. Taylor is now starting at St. Norbert as a sophomore and Stineman, a freshman at Division I Southern Illinois Edwardsville, just got his first start on Tuesday night.

"We're pretty proud," Ambrose said. "The first couple years I was here, I don't know if I had too many (college players) at all. To have kids coming back from college like this, that's what makes it all worth it. These guys are role models for a lot of guys on our team."

Current Stevenson point guard Jeffrey Leavitt says that he's good friends with Stineman and that he remembers watching Taylor closely when he was brought up to practice with the state-bound team as a freshman.

"He's a great defensive player," Leavitt said of Taylor, "A lot of the things I do (defensively) I've taken from him."

Taylor certainly must have been proud of Leavitt's lockdown effort on standout guard John Androus.

Leavitt, with some help from Nate Johnson, held Lakes' most dangerous scorer to just 8 points on zero field goals.

"They play very physical and have very good help defense," Androus said of Stevenson. "They cut down the drive because they rotate so well. That limited me a lot."

Actually, the Patriots limited pretty much everything that Lakes did on the offensive end. The Eagles tallied just 8 field goals.

"We take every possession seriously," Leavitt said. "When we get scored on, we take it personally. We pride ourselves on our defense."

That's not to say that the Patriots totally forget about their offense.

A total of 13 players made their way into the scorer's book, with Leavitt leading the way with 17 points. Senior forward Jeff Arenson added 14 points for Stevenson.

"We're doing a good job of running more this year," Leavitt said. "And everyone shares the ball, too."

Lakes' only double-digit scorer was Marcell Kirkmanbey, who finished with 10 points. Tyler Swindle added 9 points, including 2 three-pointers.

"Stevenson played really good defense and they're just so much stronger than us," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "We got open looks, we just didn't make them."