Defense sets tone for LWA

Though lacking some of its traditional firepower after graduating more than 80 percent of last season’s offense, Lawrence Woodmere Academy’s boys’ basketball program is finding putting 70 points on the board isn’t mandatory when it comes to getting into the win column.

The Tigers (11-5) beat Portledge and Calhoun (NYC) on consecutive days earlier this month scoring 54 and 48 points, respectively, and continue to wreak havoc on PSAA rivals behind the backcourt tandem of senior Alex Kompogiorgas and junior Chris Pierre-Louis.

“We’re tough defensively in general,” LWA head coach Jeff Weiss said. “We’re not putting up 80, 70 or even 60 points per game, but we’re holding our own. We’ve won some games where we’ve scored in the 40s, and that’s fine. We’ll take them any way they come.”

Kompogiorgas, a shooting guard who ranked fourth on the team in scoring last winter while starting about half the games, is pacing this year’s squad at better than 21 points per outing. He’s cracked 30 on a few occasions and most recently hit for 24 in the victory over Calhoun on Jan. 16. “Alex is really scoring in bunches,” Weiss said. “He’s incorporated being more active off the ball, and he’s done a nice job knocking down threes.

“He’s taken a huge step in his game and has become the focal point of the other teams’ defenses,” Weiss added. “When they’re in a zone, they know where he is at all times. When teams go man, they often double him.”

Portledge held Kompogiorgas well below his average — 13 — on Jan. 15, but the Tigers got plenty of other offensive contributions and allowed just 11 second-half points in the win. Pierre-Louis had a game-high 14 points, junior Max Frankel added nine, and senior Jack Xu and junior Jason Karkus chipped in six apiece. 

Pierre-Louis, the starting point guard, rarely comes off the floor, Weiss said, and ranks second on the team in scoring. “He’s developing into a pretty good point guard,” Weiss noted. “He’s fast, he distributes well, and he’s really strong at getting to the basket.

“There’s a lot of pressure on Alex and Chris,” the coach added. “They play an awful lot of minutes and we ask an awful lot of them.”

Up front, LWA has returning varsity players Xu and junior Wesley Gladstein, and varsity newcomers Frankel and Karkus. Xu does a lot of little things that don’t show up in a boxscore, and he’s a quality free throw shooter. Gladstein is a 6-foot-4 forward who defends and rebounds well. Frankel, who enjoyed a strong season on the soccer pitch in the fall, has bolstered the Tigers’ trapping defense, while Karkus, the MVP of the JV team last season, has worked his way into the starting lineup after recovering from a wrist injury. Senior Lamont Chapman is another key contributor.

“The schedule got tougher after Christmas,” said Weiss, “but we’ve managed to beat some good teams.”