Lake Zurich notches win over Cary-Grove

It's easy to see why the coaches at Lake Zurich are excited about the future of the Bears girls basketball team. With three sophomores and a freshman on this year's roster, optimism is understandably high.

For one night though, the future became the present for Lake Zurich.

In the Bears' second game at the Turkey Thriller Thanksgiving tournament against Cary-Grove, freshman Ella Gilbertson along with junior Mckenna Zobel were a big part of a fourth quarter surge.

Gilbertson scored 7 of her 9 points in the final quarter and Zobel added 5 of her team-best 11 points to lift the Bears to their first win of the season, 38-31 over the visiting Trojans. Cary-Grove dropped its second game of the tournament and fell to 1-2.

"Mckenna is just starting to scratch the surface as to how good she could be," said Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett. "As soon as she settles in, she is going to be a good one."

Cary-Grove caught the Bears at 24-24 on a 3-point field goal from Maddie Gorz (5 points) to start the fourth quarter. From there, the well went dry for the Trojans while Lake Zurich started to get into an offensive rhythm. Of course it didn't hurt that the Bears' defense was at its stingiest during this stretch as well.

In the third quarter and early stages of the fourth, Lake Zurich held Cary-Grove to just 8 total points.

"The thing we talked about after the game was that we didn't come with the intensity we brought against a very good Rolling Meadows team earlier this week," said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert. "For us to play with good intensity against Meadows and not bring that tonight was really disappointing."

Lake Zurich (1-1) broke the 24-24 tie with a 9-0 run that built the biggest lead of the night for either team at 33-24 with 5:10 to go. Gilbertson was a big player in the run for the Bears as she hit on back-to-back buckets to conclude the run.

Defense led to offense for Lake Zurich as it forced 6 Trojan turnovers in the fourth quarter.

"I think we only gave up 3 in the third and just in the significant part of the fourth," Bennett said. "We spent almost all the summer working on offense and once we started camp this fall it was all about defense."

To go with her 11 points, Zobel hauled in 14 rebounds and blocked 4 shots. Junior Katie Sowa tied for game-best honors for the Trojans with 11 points.