CHERRY TWP — Lake Pry's basketball career wasn't exactly going according to plan.

The Moniteau senior had been playing organized ball since third grade and has been attending summer hoop camps for years.

But as a sophomore with the Warriors, he averaged only a couple of minutes of varsity time per game.

Pry would have been a starter his junior year, but suffered a broken wrist in the fall and was sidelined until the final eight games of the season. He did average 14 points per game during that stretch.

Since the end of last season, Pry has been a man on a mission.

“I had to make up for lost time,” he said.

The 6-foot-3 senior worked on his game harder than ever during the off-season.

“That kid is a product of hard work, simple as that,” Moniteau coach Jerry Day said. “He worked his tail off during the off-season. He has made himself into the player he is now and I give him a lot of credit for that.”

And the player he is now is pretty darn good.

Heading into the final week of the regular season, Pry is leading all of District 9 with a scoring average of 22.6 points per game. He is 57 points shy of 500 for the season.

Pry is also averaging 8.2 rebounds and two assists per game. He scored 24 points, grabbed seven rebounds, had three assists and two steals in Wednesday night's 65-59 win over Karns City.

He sank five of six free throws in the fourth quarter of that tight contest.

“The other kids feed off of him,” Day said. “During the preseason, I knew we had a player to build around.

“Lake is a 6-3 forward who can put the ball on the ground. He has a spin move driving to the hoop that is tough to stop.”

Stopping Pry has become priority No. 1 for Moniteau's opponents. They employ junk defenses in efforts to contain him.

“We've seen them all. We're used to them all,” Day said.

Pry said his dribbling and ball-handling skills have improved drastically this season. He credits Butler girls basketball coach Joe Lewandowski for that.

“He is a friend of our family's and Coach Lewandowski worked with me the past two summers,” Pry said. “I owe him a lot for that. He worked on my technique. He's definitely helped my game.

“I never imagined I could lead the district in scoring. It was a goal of mine, sure, but a private one. I didn't expect it to happen.”

As recently as a year ago, Pry figured he had no opportunity forthcoming for college basketball. Now he's drawing interest from Grove City and Penn State-DuBois.

A few others might climb on board.

“I'd love the chance to play in college,” Pry admitted. “But if it doesn't work out, that's OK. I'm having a lot of fun this year.

“I still need to get better defensively. That's one way I could help my team a lot more than I have.”

Offensively, he's been tough to handle.

“If you stay back on him defensively, he can hit the three,” Day said. “Lake probably has about 30 of those.

“When he drives to the hoop, he's so athletic and his body is so long. He's an agile kid who knows how to use that body.”

Even when Pry struggles to get open against those junk defenses, his teammates look for him.

“Lake can score anytime he gets the ball in his hands,” senior point guard Jake Jewart said. “So we're still going to try to get him the ball.”