Let’s see who had a better day on Tuesday, you or Lawrence University student-athlete Tyler Mazur.
Mazur scored 29 points and hit a school-record nine 3-pointers in the Vikings’ basketball game at Carroll University on Tuesday. He also found out on Tuesday he was named to the D3football.com All-West Region team on Tuesday. And, just in case that wasn’t enough, the biology major found out he got straight As during the fall term.
My guess is Mazur is going to win about 99.9 percent of the who-had-the-better-day arguments.
“At the end of the game, I thought I had like seven,” said Mazur, who added the most 3-pointers he had ever made in a game was seven back at Reedsburg High School. “I honestly did not know how many it was. It was an interesting feeling.”
The performance came a bit out of nowhere for Lawrence’s multi-sport phenom. Through the first five games of the season, Mazur had hit on 7 of 20 3-point attempts and was shooting at a respectable 35 percent. Mazur connected on 9 of 11 treys on Tuesday and is now shooting 51.6 percent (16-31) from beyond the arc.
Mazur credits his hot shooting night to a bit of friendly advice from teammate and shooting partner Tom Antosz.
“Tom said, ‘You know what you need to do? You need to not think.’ During warmups, I wasn’t stroking it, and Tom came up and smacked me in the back of the head and said, ‘Stop thinking.’ ”
Mazur did just that.
“If I caught a glimpse of an open shot, I took it,” Mazur said.
Mazur broke the record of eight 3-pointers in a game held by Jason Holinbeck vs. Beloit College (2/9/02) and Joel Dillingham vs. American Indian Bible College (12/11/90).
“Everybody knew he was feeling it, but I didn’t know how many he had,” Lawrence coach Joel DePagter said of Mazur. “He was keeping us in the game a little bit with how on fire he was. When you sit back and look at it after the game, it was pretty impressive. The two shots he missed, he was wide open. The nine he made, he had a guy draped all over him.”
With Mazur’s eye-popping numbers from Tuesday night, teams around the Midwest Conference will certainly be paying more attention to No. 10. With yet another offensive weapon for the Vikings, this could open more things up for Lawrence.
“Mazur just had one of those game. He’s not going to surprise anyone anymore,” DePagter said. “If they stop Tyler, that’s when other guys have to step up. If they stop Chris (Siebert) and (Ryan) DePouw, then Mazur steps up.”
Mazur went straight from football season into the basketball campaign, and he turned in a stellar season for the football squad. A first-team All-Midwest Conference selection, he earned a third-team honor on the all-region squad. Mazur caught 53 passes for 1,139 yards and 13 touchdowns and finished his football career ranked fourth in Lawrence receiving yards (2,253), fifth in catches (130), fifth in touchdown catches (25), fourth in total touchdowns (37) and fifth in points (224).
“I didn’t find out until after the game,” Mazur said of the all-region selection. “It’s a great honor to have. Any kind of rewards are nice to get, and I appreciate all the recognition. I like to go out and play and to have that extra stuff when you’re done is great.”
Is Mazur, who also has run track and played golf for the Vikings, the best athlete on the campus?
“I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who’s close,” DePagter said. “I don’t know if he would wow people in individual tests, but he has the intangibles to be able to do things you can’t teach. He finds ways to do it. He gets things done in a deceptive way, which makes him more effective.”
Lemirande gets MCHA honor
Logan Lemirande has been named the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association Player of the Week.
Lemirande led the Vikings to a sweep of conference rival Finlandia University this past weekend. Lemirande had two goals and five assists as Lawrence won 6-3 last Friday and 5-2 on Saturday.
The freshman forward from Janesville, Wis., scored a goal and picked up four assists in the victory on Friday. The four assists ties the second-highest game total in Lawrence history. Lemirande then picked up the first short-handed goal of his career and added an assist in the win on Saturday.
Lemirande was involved in eight of Lawrence’s 11 goals during the two-game series and assisted on the game-winning goal in both games. Lemirande was plus-5 on the weekend.
Ram Tough
Lawrence welcomes Cornell College to Alexander Gymnasium on Saturday as the Rams return to the Midwest Conference, and the question is which Cornell men’s basketball team will be here. The Rams defeated preseason conference favorite St. Norbert College last Saturday and then lost to winless Knox College on the road three days later. The Cornell women are unbeaten at 6-0 and included in that was a 63-42 pasting of St. Norbert last Saturday.
Editor’s Note: Inside LU Athletics is a notes package written by Lawrence University Director of Athletic Media Relations Joe Vanden Acker. It will feature teams and individual players, recap weekly awards or highlights and take a look at what’s ahead for the Vikings.