Libertyville clamps down on Stevenson
When Libertyville forced Stevenson to work and work and work its half-court offense to no avail during one possession early in the second half Friday night, Libertyville fans cheered loudly for the effort.
Little did they know that it would be just a snapshot of Libertyville’s total defensive domination on the night.
The Wildcats did what few boys basketball teams at the varsity level ever do. They shut out Stevenson for an entire quarter. The fourth quarter, of all quarters.
In other words, Libertyville gave up no points in the fourth. Zero, zilch, nada.
The third quarter was nearly just as good. The Wildcats allowed Stevenson to score just 7 points then.
Meanwhile, Libertyville was burning up the nets, hitting on 72 percent of its second-half shots, and ultimately rolled to a 61-30 victory in the North Suburban Conference Lake Division opener for both teams.
The Wildcats, who got a game-high 15 points from junior guard Ellis Matthews, improve to 3-2 while Stevenson drops to 2-4.
“That was really good defense tonight,” said Libertyville guard Ryan Barth, who finished just behind Matthews with 14 points. “I’ve never been a part of a game like this (shutting out a team for an entire quarter). They were getting frustrated. Once we went to our 1-3-1 (full-court defense), it flustered them a little bit and we were able to get a lot of easy baskets off deflections and things like that.”
Down 21-14 midway through the second quarter, Libertyville slapped on its 1-3-1 press in an effort to get back into the game. It not only did that for the Wildcats, but the press changed the entire complexion of the game. Stevenson opened the game shooting well, but seemed to lose confidence with every turnover that the press created. In the second half, the Patriots hit just 3 of 18 shots.
They also turned the ball over 20 times on the night.
“They (Libertyville) started off in a man defense and all of our good looks came off of that,” said Stevenson guard Michael Fleming, who led Stevenson with 9 points, 6 of which came in the first quarter. “Then they switched to the 1-3-1. They did an unbelievable job and we didn’t even really prepare for that in practice. It kind of took everyone out of the game. We couldn’t get anything going, they got a lot of steals off it and it just kept going and going.”
The Wildcats, who also got double-figures out of Landon Eyre (12 points), capitalized on all the easy looks they got at the basket in the wake of Stevenson turnovers. From the second quarter on, while using the 1-3-1 press, they hit on 66 percent of their shots, including a 7-for-8 effort in the fourth quarter.
Libertyville also outscored Stevenson 45-7 during that span when the press was in effect.
“The 1-3-1 press really confused them and we got so many transition buckets,” Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. “We went to it and got three stops in a row and just stayed in it. (Libertyville forward) Jeremy Birck starts it all at the top of that 1-3-1. He’s long and he gets his hands on some balls and that gets us going.
“It’s pretty unheard of to shut someone out for a quarter. We really had them on their heels.”
Stevenson wasn’t quite playing at full strength. Senior forward Kevin Earl is out with a thumb injury that he suffered during the football season. Earl was the Patriots’ starting quarterback and would normally be a starter for the basketball team.
“That hurt not having Kevin, but he probably wouldn’t have made 30 points difference,” Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. “It’s about turnovers and our inability to get good looks. Turnovers have been a problem for us so far this season, but (Libertyville’s) defense also had a lot to do with it tonight.
“We fell apart against their 1-3-1 and they got hot. We really struggled with it. We were out of sync and they played well. Those two things really called us problems.”