Frustrating night as Libertyville edges Lakes

The rims at Lakes High School must have been angry.

Very, very angry.

Because they weren’t cooperating in the least on Saturday night.

Thanks to horrific shooting, not to mention all kinds of turnovers, both Lakes and visiting Libertyville turned in severe clunkers in their North Suburban Conference crossover.

The futility, sloppiness and inefficiency was widespread and equally distributed between both teams, which eliminated big runs on either side and made the game nip-and-tuck from start to finish.

In the final seconds, Libertyville clamped down on defense to squeeze out a 28-26 (yep, you read that right) victory in what both head coaches described as the lowest scoring varsity basketball game they’ve ever been a part of.

The two teams combined for just 5 points in the entire fourth quarter: 3 for Libertyville and 2 for Lakes.

Lakes had three possessions in the final 27 seconds, but never came close to getting the shot opportunities they were hoping for.

“It was flat basketball for both teams,” Libertyville forward Luke Mathewson said. “We were missing bunnies we usually make. It was getting frustrating, but at least we got the win.”

Mathewson scored 9 points, a team high. Lakes also didn’t get anyone into double-figures. Guard Direll Clark managed a team-high 9 points for the Eagles.

The numbers go downhill from there, in every category.

Each team scored double-figures in a quarter just once, and just barely. Lakes scored 10 points in the first quarter, and Libertyville scored 10 points in the third.

Points were so tough to come by because the shooting was so off. Libertyville connected on just 26 percent of its field goal attempts and a startling 29 percent of its free throws. Heading into the game, the Wildcats had been draining 75 percent of their free throws as a team.

Meanwhile, Lakes hit just 26 percent of its field goals and was an unimpressive 40 percent from the line.

And if that weren’t enough, neither team made even a single 3-pointer.

Libertyville was 0-for-10 from downtown while Lakes was 0-for-13.

“This didn’t feel right at all,” Clark said. “It was like we were just going through the motions. I don’t know why, but we were just off. All the missed passes and layups we had, all the missed plays. We also had free throws we didn’t make.

“Nobody was playing their game. Everybody was mad in the locker room, crying, too.”

Both coaches probably felt like shedding a few tears while they were on the sidelines.

In addition to the poor shooting, both teams turned the ball over time after time.

Libertyville rolled up 18 turnovers while Lakes finished with 19 turnovers.

“It was just so ugly,” Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. “I was preaching defense before the game, so I think our guys took that to heart. But we couldn’t hit a shot. We had finals this week and our guys were saying that they were dead, that they didn’t have any legs.

“All I told them in the locker room (after the game) was that at least we got the win. It doesn’t matter if it was a Ferrari or a junker, it’s getting us where we want to go.”

Lakes coach Chris Snyder, who says his team was probably also tired from playing three games this week, used the same tactic with his team. He chose to accentuate the positive.

“The guys are down, they’re hurting. But they battled. They played great defense,” Snyder said. “It was the best defense in the history of the program. The lowest number of points we had given up before this was 38 points, so I said, ‘Focus on that, guys.’

“I told them to just focus on the positive stuff. Games like this are going to happen, but the best thing is, we kept fighting. We didn’t hang our heads, we stayed in the game and we were right there with them.”