LOAVACHIS LOCOMOTES BRONCHOS TO WIN

By SCOTT M. BURNSTEIN

HOLLY

The city of Holly's brand new L-Train left the proverbial station around 7:00 PM on Monday night and built up speed rapidly for the next 90 minutes before coming to rest with powerful authority smack dab in the middle of Victory Valley.

Translation for those of you who have not had the pleasure of catching a Holly hoops game recently: Tantalizing senior transfer Thomas "The L-Train" Lovachis helped Holly get out of the gate fast in its conference-battle with Clio and stay on top with command throughout in leading the Bronchos to a dominating 71-42 home win.

Lovachis scored a game-high 22 points (on 11 of 14 shooting from the field), dished five assists, and swiped away four steals. The 6-foot-1 combo-guard who plays with dynamic athleticism, instinct, and leadership, scored eight points in an explosive Bronchos' first quarter and then finished the visiting-Mustangs off with four straight hoops to conclude the third quarter, a run of points that killed Clio's spirit and essentially put the game to bed.

Behind Lovachis' eight points, nine from Justin Fowler, and seven from Josh Fugate – another top of the line transfer from Lakeland –, Holly surged out to a 29-11 lead after the first quarter and had the Mustangs on the ropes early. In front 42-18 at halftime, Lovachis tallied the first two baskets of the second half and it looked as if Clio was about to fall.

But like a prideful prize fighter, the Mustangs showed some resiliency and slowly carved their deficit down.  A transition-bucket by Russell Williams got Clio to within 17 points down, 50-33, at the 1:34 mark of the third quarter and caused a Holly timeout.

When play resumed, Lovachis took his game into overdrive, took over the game, and in the process took out any chances of a Mustangs rally. First, he sunk a pull-up 10 foot jumper from the left baseline. Then, he took an outlet pass under the Clio basket, dribbled coast-to-coast and finished with a beautiful, George "Ice Man" Gervin-esque finger roll. To close the quarter out, he stole the ensuing Mustangs inbounds pass and swished a buzzer-beating fall-away "J" from about 17 feet out - with a defender draped all over him.

"He's such a great athlete and top of the line playmaker that I'm amazed every time I watch him play," said Holly head coach, Lance Baylis, of Lovachis. "He's a good, solid kid too with a solid head on his shoulders. I feel lucky for the chance to coach him his senior year."

Since becoming eligible three weeks ago, Lovachis, a highly-touted transfer from Stockbridge, has been nothing short of spectacular. His teaming with fellow standouts, Fowler and  Fugate, not to mention all-conference workhorse-forward Lance Hopkin, and a stellar cast of veteran reserves , make the Bronchos legitimate contenders to take home their first district title in school history. Holly won two boys basketball state titles in the 1920's, prior to the formation of the modern day state tournament structure.

The blow-out victory raises the Bronchos overall record to 11-4, 11-3 in the Flint Metro League.  Last season Baylis, going into his fifth year on the sidelines, led the program to a school-record 19 wins and a conference championship to boot. The Holly hoops program, never a traditional Oakland County-front runner (nor much of a contender at all to be frank), has started to come into its own this past decade, claiming three league title banners since 2001.

In a twist of good luck for Baylis the Bronchos, the three time-all-conference Lovachis fortuitously landed on their door step this past summer. Unhappy with his situation at Stockbridge (a tiny town situated between Ann Arbor and Jackson) and best friends with Fowler and Hopkin from their time playing summer ball together, Lovachis requested a meeting with Baylis at Fowler's brother, Justin's graduation party last June, to ask permission to come play at Holly for his senior year. Justin, a top scorer and all-conference performer on last season's team, was departing for Lake Forrest College in Illinois to play college ball and Baylis needed a lead guard to replace him. It was a perfect fit. Baylis accepted Lovachis' request and the rest, as they say, is history.

"A lot of people think I went out to Stockbridge and stole Thomas away, recruited him, whatever," Bayliss said candidly in his office following the win. "That's just not true. I never met or even heard of the kid before I met him at Jordan Fowler's graduation party last summer. He seemed like a good person and Justin and Lance vouched for him and how good he was on the floor. Once I saw him with the rest of the team on the court in game-competition, I couldn't believe what we had just got ourselves. Both him and Josh Fugate have been huge lifts and additions for us this year."

Fowler added 14 points and five assists in Holly's winning effort. Hopkin chipped in with four points and seven rebounds and did most of the defensive work (along with Evan Young and Nick Stoll) on Clio's 6-9 center, Luke Sorenson, holding the lanky big fella to 13 points and eight boards.  Bronchos senior swingman, Kyle Sherwin, put in seven points, collected four assists and came down with five rebounds.

"We don't have trouble scoring points that for sure," Baylis said. "I still want to get our defense a little better, add a little more killer instinct, before the regular season winds up. We're at a point now, that we really have to win out the rest of the schedule to take home another conference title. I think we can do it. It'll be hard, but I think if we play our best basketball, we can do it. Sometimes we lack that edge, that attack, go-for-the-jugular mode, that you need to finish teams out with. We play streaky sometimes and we have to straighten that out. Tonight, we showed that killer-instinct that come out with a vengeance attitude, and didn't let Clio back in the game when we could have in the second half. That's encouraging. I'm excited to see how this whole thing plays out."

Holly plays Fenton, a pontential foe in the districts in March, on Friday.