Lakes' Williams lights up Grant

Lakes senior forward Kevin Guirand walked over to teammate Trey Williams after the Eagles' exhilarating game against Grant and gave his teammate a big pat on the back.

Williams had earned it.

The senior guard scored a career-high 37 points, sinking five 3-pointers, and Kevin Rice added 18, as Lakes soared past host Grant 76-64 in a North Suburban Prairie Division game in Fox Lake.

Guirand, who's averaging nearly 21 points per game, sat out the game because of a foot injury suffered in Friday night's victory over Carmel. From the bench, he watched Williams light it up.

"He was there for me and gave a lot of support to everyone, even though he wasn't playing," Williams said. "He was letting us know he was there and cheering us on. It really helped us out."

Williams was hot from the start, hitting his first couple of shots on layups. He followed up with back-to-back 3-pointers to start a 15-4 run that helped the Eagles build a 24-14 lead after the first quarter.

Lakes led 40-28 by halftime.

"I was hyped up," Williams said. "I knew K.G. wasn't going to start, so we had to pick up the slack. I just tried my best and I was hitting everything."

Lakes (3-4, 1-1) also had its defense working, forcing Grant (6-2, 2-1) into 6 first-quarter turnovers and 15 for the game.

"Every game this year we've won the first quarter," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "Even (in losses) against Elgin and Buffalo Grove we scored over 20 points in the first quarter. Our defense sparks our offense. It's a nice trend and we're now finishing games."

The Eagles took their double-digit lead into the final quarter, but the Bulldogs closed to 58-50 on Curtis Oler's pair of free throws with 4:38 remaining.

Then, Williams and Rice each hit 3-pointers and Grant couldn't recover.

"We can't play like that (coming from behind)," Grant coach Phil Ralston said. "We played defense like we were on the seat of our pants. Our kids need to realize we can't play like that and win every time. You can't save it for the fourth quarter with four minutes left.

"I will contend that we got beat in the first quarter and it was atrocious. Lakes' defense was more superior than ours."

Grant's Mike Shields had an off night shooting, going 5 of 16 but still led the Bulldogs with 21 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds and 5 steals. Marc Grischeau came off the bench to score 18 points and pull down 8 rebounds.

-- Rusty Silber

Zion-Benton 63, Warren 53: The Zee-Bees won the North Suburban Lake Division showdown in Zion to grab sole possession of first place.

The loss dropped Warren to 5-1 and 2-1.

Zion-Benton improved to 8-0 and 3-0.

Wauconda 59, Antioch 43: The first half was a real struggle for host Wauconda and Antioch in their North Suburban Conference Prairie Division boys basketball battle Saturday night.

Antioch trailed the Bulldogs 19-16 at halftime, but Wauconda got on a roll in the second half en route to a 59-43 victory.

The Sequoits (1-6, 1-2) trailed 22-20 after two free throws by Alec Paramski, but Wauconda (5-3, 1-2) went on a 14-2 run after that to take a 36-22 advantage on two free throws by Eric Grozavescu with 2:47 remaining in the third quarter.

"It was close in the first half because we were 0 of 7 from the foul line and we had key players of theirs in foul trouble, but we didn't make them pay," said Wauconda coach Rich Wolf. "We knew it was just a matter of time before we would get our inside game going in the second half, and we clamped down on defense."

Antioch cut the lead to 38-29 on two free throws by Kyle Melton late in the third quarter, but Grozavescu hit an inside basket with two seconds left in the period to make the score 40-29 entering the fourth quarter. The Bulldogs continued to add to their lead in the final quarter as a steal and basket by junior Bryce Lahrman gave Wauconda its biggest lead at 49-32 with 5:55 to play.

"In the first half we came out kind of uneasy, but we settled down in the second half," said Lahrman. "Eric (Grozavescu) took over, too, and we had good transition and passing tonight."

The Sequoits cut the lead to 50-38 on an inside hoop by Mike Powell with three minutes to play, but the Bulldogs outscored them 9-5 the rest of the way to seal their victory.

Powell picked up his third foul with 2:53 left in the opening period. That didn't help Antioch's cause, as it had only nine players in uniform.

Powell led Antioch with 11 points. Melton added 9 for the Sequoits, while Paramski scored eight and Lamar Pottinger seven.

Lahrman scored a game-high 18 points and Grozavescu added 17 for Wauconda.

"Bryce had one of his best weeks of practice and I knew he was going to come out of his slump tonight," said Wolf. "Eric is a very talented player and if we can establish an inside game, it looses up the outside for Bryce and Connor (Dimick)."

-- John Bumbales

North Chicago 95, VH 42: DeShawn Chambliss and Blake Collins each had 19 points for the visiting Warhawks in the North Suburban Prairie Division game.

Keith Ford finished with 18 for North Chicago, which led 17-8 after one quarter and 38-16 at halftime. Chambliss hit five 3-pointers and Collins canned three.

Vernon Hills (2-4, 1-1) was led in scoring by Kenny Riedout with 8 points.

Lake Forest 59, Palatine 54: Too many Palatine turnovers, too many Lake Forest open looks, and way too many missed shots by the Pirates.

That was the story of the first three quarters for Palatine Saturday night, but the home team almost erased the memory of all that with a dramatic fourth-quarter comeback.

Palatine battled back from 14 down and took a 1-point lead with a minute left in the game, but couldn't sustain the rally as visiting Lake Forest closed out the contest on a 5 point run to win the nonconference match 59-54.

"I don't know how we got into such a hole," said Palatine senior guard John Castellano, who keyed the late effort with 8 points in the final eight minutes.

"We got really intense with each other in the fourth quarter. We knew we could come back."

Matt Vogrich led Lake Forest (4-2) with a game-high 25 points.

Palatine (4-4) trailed by 13 points with six minutes left.

But behind pressure defense and the inspired play of Castellano (13 points), Matt Rossi (13 points, 7 rebounds) and Gerald Hutton (8 points), the Pirates took a late 55-54 lead when Castellano drained a 3 from the corner.

A layup by Vogrich put Lake Forest back in the front. Scouts guard Kevin Berardini then made a clutch steal, and the Scouts closed the game out at the free throw line.

-- Bill Esbrook