NDCL boys basketball: Experienced Lions using summer leagues to continue growth

Brenden Hernan goes for a layup against Euclid in the Euclid Summer League. (Ben Hercik – The News-Herald)

Last season, NDCL made a run to a Division II district final and was the biggest hurdle for Ursuline on its path to the state semifinals. The most impressive part was the Lions did it with a slew of underclassmen and two seniors.

While they return a host of players from last year’s success, they graduated Evan Dugger and Jaxon Mangelluzzi, the top two scorers from last season. Coach Pat Vuyancih is excited with the senior group NDCL has for 2024-25.

The Lions are participating in the Euclid Summer League and the Locked In Summer League at Warrensville Heights against strong contingents from across Northeast Ohio.

“For the summer league, the guys know the system,” Vuyancih said. “They know what we do well. Anytime we get a lead with the pressing and running, doing our thing, we then worked on other things. We’re going to have a lot of depth next year, more depth than ever. That’s going to be a challenge for our opponents.”

NDCL has all of its key players participating in the summer leagues, including five who are juggling football practices with the games.

Connor and Brendan Hernan and Angelo Tamburino were starters in the postseason run. The Lions can build on that framework with so many players participating in the offseason. They are also incorporating new players. Vuyancih and his staff are implementing new plays to prepare for the upcoming season.

“They play really hard. In the game we just played we had three sophomores out there,” Vuyancih said. “Blake Dumermuth, Seph Rivers and Wesley Jacobson played really well against some older guys and to go with the fact that we have juniors coming back like Luke Keep, Mason Pesho and Brendan Hernan, we’re going to be young but we’re going to have experience, too. We’re using the summer league to get the younger guys the experience now so when we get to go, we have 15 guys that can play.”

The Lions have competed against St. Ignatius, Mentor, Nordonia and Ursuline. Vuyancih said it helps prepare them for the challenging slate that they have next season.

The rebirth of the North Coast Conference includes the Lions, Lake Catholic, Padua and CVCA. Plus, NDCL’s schedule features a pair of district final rematches with Ursuline.

“Our schedule is really going to be what pushes us,” Vuyancih said. “We open against St. Edward, we play Ursuline twice. We dropped some games to make everything a challenge. The league is going to be a challenge. For us it’s not just our system that’s going to win us games this year. It’s going to be playing better in the half court. We need to be able to execute, we’re going to be more power offense oriented and a different look in a lot of ways with the size and strength we have.”

In the new expanded OHSAA divisions, NDCL will be in Division IV. It will be in a district pool with VASJ, Canfield, Warrensville and Ursuline, all of whom reached the regional round in D-II last year. Getting the experience will pay dividends once the season rolls around.