Lake County Gazette

Bryant Brown wants his last shot at Waukegan to be a memorable one.

The senior swingman, who has been a varsity player since his freshmen year, is doing all he can to have the Bulldogs ready and on the attack this season.

“I feel like it was just yesterday we were freshmen,” Brown told the Chicago Tribune. “This year’s team, we know this is the last run so we’ve got to get stuff done. That’s our mindset this year more than anything else.”

What Brown and coach Ron Ashlaw don’t want to see is a repeat of last season’s disappointing finish. After bagging a regional title the year before, Waukegan finished 11-16, 4-10 last season. 

“We stayed competitive,” Ashlaw told the Tribune. “We just lost some offensive punch to win games. We were losing games by two (points), four (points) and in overtime.”

Brown did his part averaging 23.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.6 blocks, including netting at least 30 points in six games to earn Illinois Basketball Coaches Association second team all-state honors. He’s dedicating this summer to working on his jump-shot and working out the wrinkles with fellow senior guards and three-time letter winners Ja’Dyn Brown and Jordan Brown.

“Now that we experienced last season, we all know what we have to do,” Brown said. “Everybody has to come to preseason workouts. Everybody has to work on their game individually to get better. We all see that.”

All the early returns this summer have been encouraging, Ashlaw said.

“We scored a lot of points (in summer league games),” he told the Tribune. “A lot of it was based on transition basketball and a lot of it was based on we got back to that trapping and scrambling that we’ve done with different groups. It was a point of emphasis. That produced a lot of good things for us.”

Typically, Brown has been in the middle of most of it.

“Coming into this year, we are going to be very hungry,” he said.