[Preview of my Inside-Booster story for this week.]
By Jack Lydon
It was a very good night at Lake View High School Thursday. The Wildcats defeated neighborhood rival Amundsen Vikings 74-66 to take the lead in the Chicago Public League’s White-North division on a night when the Wildcats and the Lake View school community celebrated senior guard Daniel Loza’s reaching 1000 points in his high school career. Daniel is likely to become the school’s points leading by the end of the season.
The moment wasn’t lost on Daniel, “DLo” as he is known. He wasn’t distracted by the celebration in his honor planned for after the game. He was focused on beating Amundsen. Focused on winning the school’s first conference championship in basketball.
DLo led his Wildcats scoring a career high of 32 points Thursday which included a remarkable eight three-point shots made. DLo is now the second highest point scorer in the history of Lake View High School which was established in 1874, making it the oldest public high school in the state of Illinois. The school existed before Lake View as part of the City of Chicago.
“[Daniel Loza] is the model. When he leaves there will be a Daniel Loza Award because he has set the pace for how to do work,” said Lake View’s fourth year head coach Todd Patterson.
“He's really been working if I can say this on being a three-level scorer. That's what you saw today, him trying to score it all from the three levels. He hits the big threes, but he opens up the game up with [scoring inside and at the free throw line.]”
The school and the Friends of Lake View had arranged a celebration for Daniel’s achievement to be held after the game but there was a game to play first. The Wildcats faced off against neighboring Amundsen High School which is located just two miles north at Foster and Damen.
The Wildcats came into the game with a 9-8 record overall and a 7-0 record in the CPL White-North conference. The schedule that Lake View’s head coach Todd Patterson put together this year is tough with games against Lakes, Jacobs, Notre Dame, St. Viator, West Chicago and Highland Park. These tough games got them ready for tough conference games like this one against Amundsen. A win against Amundsen would put them in a position where they are undefeated in the conference and would be promoted into the CPL’s Red Division next season.
But first the Wildcats had to deal with a very talented Amundsen squad that came into the game 11-2, and 7-0 in the conference.
The Vikings jumped out to an early eight point lead late in the first quarter. But the Wildcats hung around until midway through the second quarter when DLo asserted himself. Hard screens and quick jumpers by DLo lead to four three-point bucket by DLo erasing the Amundsen lead. That second quarter 14-3 run by the Wildcats flipped the script and launch the Cats toward the school’s first ever conference championship in basketball in the schools 150 years.
The leading scorer in school history at the moment is Octavius Parker, a 1999 graduate. Imariz Duran, a 2024 Lake View graduate leads all girls scoring, with over 1000 points. Loza is expected to pass Parker’s scoring total by the end of the year and be the leading scorer in school history.
Coach Patterson said after the game, “Daniel’s father passed away about five years ago. Daniel’s dad is alumni. His Mom is alumni. We’ve got a lot of motivation to get this done.”
The moment was not lost on DLo. Showing a maturity beyond his tender years, Daniel reflected on his years at and family connection with Lake View.
“It’s kind of crazy because when I came to Lake View, my mom had told me that a lot of my family members have went to Lake View, but I wasn't thinking it was a basketball school. I [thought] I needed to go to a school where there's gonna be basketball. When I first came here, there was no actual basketball coach. I told my mom that I might have to transfer. So I'll wait for him to come and then it was Coach Patterson. I had a good connection with him so I stayed.”
Now Daniel is the second leading scorer in school history.
