Steinhaus, persistent Libertyville top Zion-Benton
After a long 3-point attempt front-rimmed for Libertyville junior Paul Steinhaus, he took both hands and banged them right to his forehead in frustration.
Another long 3 rimmed out, and his arms went right in the air as he wondered why the iron was so unkind.
So when he had a third attempt at a 3-pointer with the Wildcats trailing host Zion-Benton in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division contest Friday night, Steinhaus didn't hesitate.
The long ball from the right side of the arch was perfect, and the only arms in the air were his teammates'.
The long 3 gave Libertyville the lead, and a running layup by Steinhaus with 1:56 left secured a big 62-59 win, the Wildcats' third straight.
"I missed a lot of them but I hit a big one at the end," said Steinhaus who scored 13 of his team-high 17 points in the second half. "I'm just glad I was able to help my team out."
In the back and forth contest with the Zee-Bees, Libertyville (9-7, 3-3) appeared to take control with a 14-1 burst that gave the Wildcats a 50-44 advantage with 7:11 left in the game.
"This was really a swing game - a huge game for us," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "(Zion) is a real good team and Admiral (Schofield) is terrific and I thought we had some real good matchups against them tonight."
Zion (10-5, 2-4) answered the Libertyville run with one of its own to regain the lead 51-50 with 5:34 left. A 3-pointer from Devonte Maynard (7 points) started a run where the two teams exchanged the lead 7 times over the final five minutes.
"Give Libertyville credit, they won the game tonight, but we did get a lot of shots there at the end that we wanted," said Zion-Benton coach Bob Worthington. "The ball just didn't fall for us. Sometimes you grow from it, other times you fall - we will see if we can move on and grow from this."
The hosts built up their biggest lead of the night at 43-36 with 4:32 left in the third quarter thanks in large part to the hot shooting of junior Kienan Baltimore. He hit for 9 his game-best 19 points in the second half to pace the Bees. Schofield, a Tennessee recruit, tallied 17 points and 8 boards to pace the Zee-Bees.
The Wildcats run started on a bucket by Steinhaus. Then a putback by Ben Kimpler (8 points), who'd missed the Wildcats' last contest at Marian Central, kept the run going.
"A lot of times when (Paul) misses he will get down on himself but tonight he hit the big shot and made some key free throws for us there at the end," Bogumil said. "This win comes at a good time for us as we hit the gauntlet with Stevenson, Lake Forest and Lake Zurich starting next week after our crossover."
To go with the fine outing from Steinhaus was a very balanced scoring attack for Libertyville. Connor Peterson added 15 points and 8 boards while Jake Mansfield got the Wildcats going early with 11 of his 13 points coming in the first half.