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By: Cavan Walsh

Junior point guard Lawrence Thomas is emerging as a definite prospect to watch this season. Thomas and his Springfield Southeast team finished the Decatur SOY Capital Turkey Tournament at a disappointing 1-2 record, but Thomas had some great individual outputs. Southeast squared off against Peoria Central in the opener and Lanphier in the 3^rd game of the tournament, and in both losses they let a double digit lead diminish.  Southeast will again face off with cross-town rival Lanphier and this time around it features CS8 conference title implications.

“We are 2-2 we haven’t got the start we wanted. We play Lanphier on Friday and it’s going to be a good game. We are inner-city rivals so a big crowd this is always a big game, and it means a lot, puts us in good spot for conference. We played them in Decatur and we were up sixteen points in the 3^rd quarter but we couldn’t hold on for the victory,” state Thomas.

Thomas hasn’t put up mind spectacular stats this season yet, averaging a modest 13ppg, but he has shown flashes of excellence and is doing a great job distributing the ball. Lawrence posted his season high against Collinsville on this young season when he scored eighteen points. Thomas has the bigger picture in his mind. “We want to win twenty games, regional’s, and make it to sectionals.” While Thomas is putting his team first, he would like to build off of last years first team all conference and win Central State 8 player of the year.

Thomas is attracting interest all across the board among college suitors. “Recruiting is going good. Loyola, WIU, EIU, Michigan, and Iowa State are the main colleges sending me stuff.” Thomas is not only looking for a good program that he could fit with, but is looking for a school with strong academics as well. “I want a good academic college and I want to study finance.”

Thomas competes on the AAU circuit with Larry Butler’s Illinois Warriors. He competed on the 17u team last year as a 16 year old, and had strong showings at a number of national tournaments including the Nike Peach Jam.

Springfield Southeast plays Peoria Manual on Tuesday, and “LT” will be matching up with fellow star 09 guard, Manuel’s Paris Gulley.