Lakes taking visual approach to game-readiness

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

Videos work nicely, too.

Instead of just telling all his seniors to play like they're savoring every last moment of this dwindling basketball season, Lakes coach Chris Snyder decided to show them how others have done so.

"We've been watching some inspirational movies, like 'Hoop Dreams,'" Snyder said. "I liked it when we got to the part about William Gates' last game. I wanted to give our seniors a sense of the season being over and what that feels like and just how you have to play like you're cherishing every moment, because it will be over soon."

The Eagles still have so much more work to do.

They just recently even their record to .500 (10-10) and they'd like to finish with a winning record after last year's disappointing 13-15 campaign. They'd also like to take advantage of the fact that they're hosting a regional and win some tournament hardware at home.

"Our seniors want to leave their mark on our program," Snyder said. "I think maybe the light switch has gone on. We're in January. We're in crunch time. We have to put this together now."

So far, it seems like the Eagles are getting the message. They are 5-1 in the month of January.

Senior moment:

Injuries have plagued Nate Reid over the course of his career.

But one condition the Carmel senior forward probably doesn't have is senior-itis.

Reid doesn't want his senior season to end.

He's finally healthy and he's making up for lost time. Reid has become a go-to 3-point shooter for the Corsairs.

"Nate is a really good shooter, but I don't think anyone knew exactly how good because he's been dealing with all these injuries," Carmel coach Zack Ryan said. "He had a game (in December) where he scored 19 points at Jacobs and he's been like 4-of-4 on 3-pointers before. He's been playing really well this year."

Reid, who comes off the bench for Carmel, missed a lot of time as a sophomore due to injuries. He was out last year with a serious hip injury that required surgery, and he even missed some time at the beginning of this season due to stress in his shins.

"We didn't even get Nate until Christmas," Ryan said. "I know it's been tough on him and in some ways, he's not totally back yet. But he's getting there and doing a nice job. He's been a nice surprise. I think he realizes that this is it for him so he's really out there playing hard and enjoying it."

Reid has hit 16 3-pointers on the season and is hitting free throws at a 90 percent clip.

Playing big:

At 6-foot-3, it's not like Ethan Sage is vertically challenged.

But he is a bit undersized for his position. The Lakes senior plays in the post.

Not that his numbers reflect any kind of disadvantage there.

Sage is coming off a 29-point game against Oswego East earlier this week, not to mention a 20-point performance against Antioch. He leads the Eagles in scoring at about 16 points per game.

"He's been very consistent for us," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "Teams are even keying on him down low now. But he's just an athletic kid. He's able to get good position, get the ball and be very effective with simple post moves.

"A lot of it is his quickness. He uses his quickness down low on bigger kids and he gets to the basket. Our guards have done a good job of getting him the ball."

Balliu battling:

It's been a tedious road back for Lakes point guard Jake Balliu.

The senior workhorse is used to heavy minutes and a lot of responsibility for the Eagles as their most experienced player.

But an ankle injury sidelined Balliu for a few weeks recently and he is struggling to regain his old form.

"Jake is just a little behind," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "He's still working his way back and it's really the conditioning more than anything. That's always tough to get back when you're returning from an injury. At times, he's a little winded. But he's still going all out and he's still working hard."

Short-handed Sequoits:

No one could blame Antioch coach Jim White for playing the "What if" game.

The Sequoits are 8-9 and have had many of their losses decided by 4 or fewer points.

What if Antioch had a full roster to work with? What if injuries weren't such a big storyline for the Sequoits?

White can't help but think that some of those losses could be wins.

"It seems like it's always been one thing or another this season," White said. "We've had so many injuries and illnesses. At the beginning of the season, we thought we were as deep as we've ever been. We kept (16) kids. Now, it's tough for us to even go 5-on-5 in practice.

Trevor Koch was averaging nearly 9 points per game when he went down with a severe ankle injury in December. He has been rehabbing hard trying to get back.

"He is our most consistent player and our defensive stopper," White said of Koch.

Meanwhile, Brandon Dade, the Sequoits' top player off the bench, has also missed the last month with a hip problem that forced him to see a chiropractor every day for two straight weeks.

Senior forward Matt Powers has played in only half of Antioch's games due to an ankle injury and Daniel Brito is having issues with his foot and has trouble maintaining good speed. Kyle Gofron has also had foot issues due to a bone spur.

If all that weren't enough, Nathan Formella and Jack Kovach have both been out sick for a week.

"Even with all that, we were still above .500 through mid-January, which is the longest we've been above .500 in a long time," White said. "That's a good thing for us to hold onto. We just need to get our guys healthy."

White says that Koch and Powers are nearly back and others are starting to get healthy as well.

"We are going to have a wave of games in February where we're playing two to three times a week," White said. "We're going to need all our guys ready to play."

Missing piece:

With 6-foot-10 center Joe Borcia and 6-foot-6 forwards Ben Kimpler and Conor Peterson, Libertyville has been more than holding its own in the paint this season.

The questions came on the perimeter.

"Early in the season, other coaches would tell me that they really liked our team and how we played and that we were a guard away from being a really, really tough team," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "We knew our guards would have to come on, and that's what has happened."

Cue Jake Mansfield and Paul Steinhaus.

Mansfield has become the Wildcats' defensive stopper on the perimeter while Steinhaus has revved up his offensive production.

Earlier this month, Steinhaus has 24 points against Wauconda and 17 points against Zion-Benton, both wins.

"I knew Paul had it in him," Bogumil said. "He has just never really played varsity ball before, so I think he just needed to find some confidence and I think he's done that. He also missed pretty much the whole summer with a broken wrist so it was a matter of shaking all the dust off

The last seven games Steinhaus has led Libertyville in scoring at around 18 points per game.

"He willed us to victory in that Wauconda game," Bogumil said of Steinhaus. "He scored 18 of his 24 points in the second half and was getting to the hole and hitting some really tough shots.

"The confidence has been a great thing for Paul."