Stevenson's perfect in NSC Lake
Lost in the shuffle of a No. 1 state ranking, an undefeated record in the state of Illinois, back-to-back state finals runs and a couple of Division I superstars on the roster is the fact that the Stevenson boys basketball team has some enviable depth.
Even its role players are good.
Some of them, namely Ryan Rosenbaum and Ryuji Aoki, made a huge difference on Friday night as the host Patriots put what is likely the first of many exclamation points on this season.
Stevenson officially won the North Suburban Conference Lake Division by running over second-place Lake Forest, 65-48. The Patriots swept Lake Forest this season and completed a 12-0 run through the Lake Division. They improve to 22-2 overall, with their only losses coming to teams from other states during holiday tournaments.
"There is so much focus on guys like Jalen (Brunson, Villanova) and Connor (Cashaw, Rice), that some of our other guys come in and might find themselves open, and they know what to do when that happens," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. "We had some guys really step up today.
"We're still top-heavy, but all year long, our subs have played against the first-team and have gotten a lot better."
With starter Matt Johnson still hurting from a foot injury, Rosenbaum, normally a reserve, started his third game in a row for the Patriots. He scored 8 points, played solid defense and logged heavy minutes against Lake Forest.
Meanwhile, Aoki, a reserve guard, played heavier minutes than usual due to the foul trouble of starter Parker Nichols. Aoki knocked down 2 gigantic 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter to break open a 9-point game that actually felt much closer than that. His big buckets extended Stevenson's lead to 53-35 with 5:57 left and Lake Forest was unable to cut its deficit to single digits again.
"It was exciting," Aoki said. "It's just believing in my teammates and myself and my work ethic during practices and having confidence in myself.
"People on the bench can step up and still play it strong on this team. Just watching how hard guys like (Brunson and Cashaw and Johnson) practice has been big for me. I think the biggest thing I've learned from them is work ethic. No matter how famous they get, they still keep coming in every day and working hard."
Brunson finished with a game-high 26 points and sent several bulleted passes through the lane to a cutting Rosenbaum, who seemed to have a knack for being in just the right place at the right time.
"I'm not usually nervous coming into these games because my role is so consistent. I just try to find the open lane so that when Jalen and Connor drive, I can be there for the dump-off pass," Rosenbaum said. "We have a very deep team. Our JV team was undefeated this year. For our bench, going up against our starters every day in practice makes us better. Playing with a bunch of Division I-level players around me all the time is going to make me better."
Stevenson, which used a full-court press that caused many of Lake Forest's 14 turnovers, was up 34-23 at halftime and went up by as many as 19 points in the fourth quarter.
"We never really got in rhythm, never really got in sync early," Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala said. "Give (Stevenson) a lot of credit defensively. They did some stuff to really stop our momentum. They're a really underrated defensive team."
Lake Forest did manage to get double-figures out of two players. Noah Karras had a team-high 18 points on four 3-pointers while Dartmouth recruit Evan Boudreaux had 14 points.
"We didn't really execute our stuff, we lost some defensive assignments and they hit some big shots," Boudreaux said. "It was tough. We didn't really come out ready to play and a lot of that comes on me and the captains. We're just going to have to move past this."