Lawrence High boys basketball coach Mike Lewis has not often found himself needing to have his Lions play a zone defense over the past few seasons.

With Lawrence High trailing Lee’s Summit, Missouri, 57-40, early in the third quarter of Friday’s Blue Valley Shootout, Lewis needed to do something to slow the Tigers’ guard combo of Nick Larkin and Blake Spellman. The defensive change from man-to-man to a 2-3 zone slowed down the Tigers, but it was too little, too late, as Lawrence High fell to Lee’s Summit, 77-68.

“It helped us, I think, to contain them a bit more,” Lewis said. “One of their players (Larkin), the little left-handed guard, was really getting to the rim. We thought, ‘Well, let’s try the zone and see how it goes.’ It happened to work out for us and get us back into the game.”

Larkin was 7-for-7 from the field for 16 of his game-high 20 points in the first half. The LHS zone took Larkin and the Tigers out of their rhythm, though, and it’s something that Lewis said he might use more often.

“I think on occasion we’re able to pull that out in certain situations and just try to mix it up defensively,” Lewis said.

Although Larkin’s hot shooting stole the show early, the game had a little extra meaning for Lawrence High senior Justin Roberts because of one of the Tigers’ other guards. Roberts has played AAU ball with LSHS senior Blake Spellman with Run GMC, and while he enjoyed matching up against his friend, he was more focused on how to help the Lions learn from their first loss of the season.

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