Star basketball players with older siblings who roughed them up when they were younger are commonplace, but the situation for St. Xavier’s Davion Lawrence was unique. His brother, Donovan Smith, is 6-foot-10 and a decade older than Lawrence, and the two went to war on the basketball court when they were younger. “We always went back and forth on and off the court,” Lawrence said. “It was a lot of tough love.” Lawrence, who grew to be 6-6, played at Oak Lawn and then Moraine Valley before finding his current college home at St. Xavier. Smith, who attended Richards but did not play basketball, went to Triton and Quinnipiac. At age 31, he’s playing in the Philippines. “They play on YouTube, but there is a 14-hour difference and are a day ahead of us,” Lawrence said. “At 4 in the morning or 5 in the morning, I’m watching him.” Lawrence has been worth watching as well, finding a comfortable role with the Cougars. He scored 16 points off the bench Wednesday night — including four 3-pointers — in a 90-77 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference win over Judson at the Shannon Center in Chicago. Mekhi Wilson and Sando Hill tallied 15 points apiece for St. Xavier (14-5, 9-2), while Lincoln-Way East graduate Julian Barr added 14. Former Lincoln-Way East standout George Bellevue, a freshman guard/forward, finished with 19 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals for Judson (5-14, 2-9). Judson’s George Bellevue scores an inside basket against St. Xavier during a CCAC game on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Jeff Vorva / Daily Southtown) Lawrence, meanwhile, said his first love growing up was baseball. A right fielder, he said he was an “OK” hitter. But then he began to grow. “I started following in my brother’s footsteps,” Lawrence said. “He was good, and I started mimicking his game a little bit.” Despite the fact that Smith always got the better of Lawrence, there was that one time … “I beat him one-on-one once in the summer,” Lawrence said. “But he came back stronger and we haven’t played each other since.” Lawrence played at Moraine Valley for former St. Xavier guard Kyle Huppe, who let Cougars coach Robert Ford know about him. “We like to recruit local kids when we can and Kyle told us about Davion,” Ford said. “After his junior college season, he put a lot of work in and it’s paying off.” Barr appreciates the versatility in Lawrence’s game. “He can pop-and-shoot, drive, dunk,” Barr said of Lawrence. “He can do it pretty much wherever he is on the court.” St. Xavier’s Davion Lawrence hits an early 3-point basket against Judson in a CCAC game in Chicago on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (Jeff Vorva / Daily Southtown) Lawrence enjoyed his first double-double with a 10-point, 10-rebound performance Saturday in a 79-72 win over host Olivet Nazarene in Kankakee. The Cougars entered the game averaging 94.7 points. They have eclipsed the 100-point mark five times, including a 119-point showing on Dec. 30 at home against McPherson. St. Xavier, however, hasn’t scored in triple figures in the 2025 portion of the schedule yet. Ford uses a five-in, five-out system before going with the hot hands to close out each half. “Obviously, at the beginning of the year, this new system hit a lot of people by surprise,” Ford said. “We had a lot of energy early to keep it going. But as the season goes on, it wanes off a little bit. “We are dealing with some injuries. But we’ll pick it back up.” Lawrence likes the high-flying offense. It was just another adjustment for him to make after adjusting from high school to junior college. “At this level, you have to be physical, and you have to be strong,” Lawrence said. “There is a big adjustment going with the pace of the game. There are a lot more players who are 6-10, and that plays a role in the how the game is changing and how we attack those teams.” Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.