Geske, Warren solve Lake Zurich
Warren was missing “J.J.” and “J’s.”
So Jon Geske guessed he better take an advantage of an opportunity against a Lake Zurich basketball team that was determined not to allow the Blue Devils to score another 83 points.
“We really stuck that up on the bulletin board,” said coach Billy Pitcher, whose Bears surrendered 83 points in a blowout loss to Warren on Jan. 7. “At the time it was their season high. That was a motivating factor. We knew we could have a better effort defensively than that game. We kind of sagged too much that last game. We came out tonight and at least got the hand in the face and wanted to contest every shot.”
Lake Zurich’s strategy worked for a half, as the Bears held Warren to 12 points, but the Blue Devils’ patience paid off in a 43-28 win for the North Suburban Lake Division champions on their home court Friday night.
Warren (21-3, 10-0) won for the eighth straight time, while Lake Zurich (5-18, 2-8) lost for the fifth game in a row.
Starting in place of Jeremiah Jackson, who, per IHSA rules, had to miss the contest after being ejected from Warren’s previous game, Geske responded. He scored a game- and season-high 13 points and grabbed 8 rebounds.
“J.J. was out so I knew I had to step up,” said Geske, whose only other start came against Glenbrook North last weekend. “He’s our offensive rebounder and putback guy, so I had to step up in that department. My teammates got me the ball in the right positions, and I took advantage of them.”
Geske had half of Warren’s points in the opening half, which ended with the hosts up 12-9.
When Geske’s name was mentioned after the game, Warren coach Chuck Ramsey couldn’t stop gushing.
“I have tremendous respect for Jon Geske,” Ramsey said.
“He brings it every day. Whether he has played 30 minutes or 30 seconds, he’s the same kid. He’s alert, he’s focused, and we really needed it tonight. He really stepped up. I’m really proud of Jon. He’s a fantastic kid, and this success he had tonight is much-deserved.”
Ramsey wasn’t done.
“He just played under control,” the coach added. “He played really good defense on (Mirko) Grcic (5 points), a kid who can score.”
When Warren played at Lake Zurich, the Blue Devils sank 10 of 13 three-point attempts, but missed all eight Friday. Warren shot 6 of 18 from the floor in the first half.
The Bears ran their offense deliberately, and Ramsey expected that.
“That’s the style that everybody is using with us,” Ramsey said, “being real patient on offense, getting a lot of touches, running a lot of clock.”
Warren started extending its lead early in the second half and was up 29-14 after three. Almost every time Lake Zurich missed a shot in the third quarter, Warren quickly pushed the ball the other way.
Brandon Ferguson and Geske each scored 6 points in the third.
“In the first half we didn’t really execute that well,” Geske said. “They probably had the ball 13 minutes of the 16. In the second half we just wanted to come out, speed up the tempo and get the game rolling a little more. I think we did that with our defense, forcing turnovers.”
Lake Zurich made only 1 of 9 shots in the third and had just 21 points with 2:41 left in the game when both coaches cleared their benches.
Mike Boyd’s 7 points led the Bears. Boyd, Justin Peterson and Zach Johnson hit 3-pointers. Peterson’s 3 gave Lake Zurich its only lead — 7-6 in the second quarter.
“We just weren’t able to make any shots from the perimeter,” Pitcher said. “We can’t score inside against them (because) they’re so big. We got to score from the outside and stretch them out, and then open those back doors and things like that.”
Aside from his players missing jumpers, Ramsey was happy with their effort. Ferguson and Nathan Boothe also scored in double figures for the Blue Devils with 10 points each.
“We had good energy,” Ramsey said. “We had everything in the first half, except making shots. Then in the second half we were able to get some run-outs and some easy ones off our defense, and that got us going.”