Lake Zurich handles Vernon Hills
A physical game with two player technical fouls and some jawing back and forth ended with hugs and pictures being taken of players from both teams standing next to each other, smiling wide.
Even a humble, respectful tip of the hat from one side to the other was overheard as Vernon Hills guard Robby Nardini headed to his locker room. "Good job shutting me down," Nardini called out to Lake Zurich guards Jack O'Neill and Mike Travlos.
Nardini, O'Neill and Travlos are all good friends who play on the same AAU team.
But on Monday in the championship game of the Lake Zurich Martin Luther King tournament, O'Neill and Travlos made it their mission to make Nardini's life as difficult as possible. And they succeeded.
They took turns closely face-guarding the high-scoring Vernon Hills 3-point sharpshooter, who wound up being named the most valuable player of the tournament. They held him to just 2 points and zero field goals, the first time he's been held without a field goal in his varsity career. That was key in Lake Zurich's 71-54 victory over the Cougars.
Lake Zurich, Vernon Hills, Palatine and Niles North all finished the tournament at 4-1, but Lake Zurich won the tie-breaker and thus the tournament title on point differential in its victory over Vernon Hills.
"It was the biggest key," Travlos said of Lake Zurich's defense on Nardini. "Going into it, we knew this was the big game and we knew that Nardini is their best player and that shutting him down is how you stop their team.
"Me and Jack O'Neill are very good friends with (Nardini) and we're just so competitive and we've had rivalries with each other since sixth grade. We just really wanted this game."
Travlos and O'Neill also got it done on the offensive end. They were two of four players to score in double figures for the Bears, who jumped out on Vernon Hills early.
Lake Zurich (17-4) raced out to a 10-0 lead and took a 31-18 advantage into the locker room at the break.
Center Will McClaughry led the way for Lake Zurich with 19 points while Travlos finished with 18, O'Neill had 12 and Nick Penny added 10 points.
"We came out inspired, we came out with a lot of energy," Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said. "It's so nice to have a guy like Will (McClaughry) that you can feed it into. He can get easy shots and he can draw double teams and that gives us open shots on the perimeter when he kicks it out.
"We were able to get the inside out a lot."
With Nardini struggling to find his shot, Vernon Hills was still able to hang around in the first half thanks to a spark from reserve Sam Rattner. He scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half.
"Shots weren't really falling for some of our guys in the first half and we kind of dug ourselves into a hole," Rattner said. "It's not very often that Rob (Nardini) struggles and even if he does, he usually shoots himself out of it. But tonight it was tough and so me, (Matt) Weaver and Corey (Levin) felt like we had to get to the rim to try to get us back in the game."
Weaver finished with a game-high 21 points for Vernon Hills, scoring 19 in the second half on three 3-pointers. Levin had 7 points.
The Cougars (17-3) cut their deficit to 7 points twice in the third quarter but couldn't get any closer.
"They were real physical with us," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said of Lake Zurich. "That definitely got to some of our guys. We had moments when we had chances, but really, they deserved to win that game. They're a good team.
"But we still had a really good run this weekend in this tournament. We just need to keep our heads up and bounce back."