Saturday, January 9, 2010

Lilly shakes off adversity ...

“Playing the role of Brock Simmons, it’s Austin Lilly.”

That wasn’t the way Lilly was introduced as a starter for Calloway County’s game with Murray on Friday night, but the description would have fit. Lilly tossed in 22 points as the Lakers beat archrival Murray 47-37 without leading scorer Simmons, who had surgery to remove a staph infection from his knee.

It wasn't his career-best scoring effort — he drilled eight 3-pointers in a 31-point explosion against University School of Nashville as a sophomore — but it may have been the game that stands out in his memory years from now, given the ferocity of the rivalry between Calloway and Murray.

Lilly is easy to root for because of the adversity he's dealt with over the last couple of years. Two summers ago, he was ready to give up the game to spend more time with his ailing father, who passed away last summer after a lengthy battle with brain cancer. He eventually rejoined the team, in large part because of the encouragement from his father.

"He definitely had a hand in it," Lilly said.

Lilly has also missed some time this season because of a bad back. “Yeah, it still bothers me,” he said. “I’ll probably need surgery on it.”

Calloway coach Bruce Lane was more than happy to take Lilly back, and not just because of his difficult family situation.

“Austin is a kid that plays hard all the time — sometimes too hard, maybe,” Lane said. “We have to get on him sometimes about gambling too much on defense, but he always puts out the effort.

"And he's been through more than most kids his age have been. I don't know how I would've handled that at his age.”

No comments: