Lake Zurich puts chill on Warren

Sarah Boothe, who never shoots too far from the basket, had trouble shooting.

Lory Shaw, a good foul shooter, rattled free throws in and out -- mostly out.

But then, who could fault Warren's top two scorers? Lake Zurich's dark gym had a chill to it Tuesday night.

Not ideal shooting conditions.

Moreover, Warren's girls always seem to struggle on the Bears' court.

"It's not the gym, it's the team playing in the gym," Blue Devils coach John Stanczykiewicz said. "I think Lake Zurich does a nice job playing against us. I think Chris (coach Chris Bennett) does a nice job getting his kids ready to play us."

Warren is 3-0 in Lake Zurich's gym the last three years, but all three games have been close, including Tuesday night's North Suburban Conference Lake Division opener. The Blue Devils won 38-29 to remain perfect at 6-0.

Warren won 35-26 at Lake Zurich last season and prevailed 56-52 in overtime the previous season on the same court. That was the Bears' first season in the NSC after leaving the Fox Valley.

"This is the first year that we weren't down the whole game," Boothe said.

Lake Zurich (4-2) did its typical good job defending Boothe. Lydia Bauer and her teammates helped limit Boothe to 7-of-19 shooting.

Warren's Stanford-bound center still finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds (her fifth double-double in six games). Boothe also had 6 blocks, 4 assists and 3 steals.

"Lydia has excellent defensive footwork, so we think we can guard (Boothe) pretty well," Bennett said. "But, still, you got to get help on her, and that's going to create openings. (Eventually), they're going to find them and exploit them, and they obviously did."

Shaw finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds, but shot just 2 of 7 from the line. Erin Norwood and Shana Shepherd each sank a 3-pointer and finished with 5 points.

"They pack it in, so there's like three girls on me every time I catch it," Boothe said. "Everyone did a nice job moving the ball."

That includes senior Brelynn Heneghan. She saw her first action of the season and in the fourth quarter made her only shot and fed Boothe for a bucket.

"You give everyone else their chance and she was the next one in line," Stanczykiewicz said. "That's the great thing about Brelynn and the other kids on the bench is that they've been very positive and they've waited for their chance."

Peggie Parhas and Bauer each had 10 points and 4 rebounds for Lake Zurich, which was playing its first game since winning the Dundee-Crown tournament.

"We struggled a little bit (offensively)," Bennett said. "There's a couple of skills that we got to get better at, and we're not real sure exactly how to find things yet, like we did at the end of last year. We'll get there."