Scouts' defense stifles Wildcats

It was like déjà vu.

For the second time this season Lake Forest's defense was the key in defeating Libertyville.

The visiting Scouts won 65-49 in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division game Saturday night.

Lake Forest beat Libertyville 65-48 earlier this season.

"We needed to stop their offense, so we went to a pressure defense," Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala said.

The strategy worked.

After being down 11-3 midway through the first quarter, Lake Forest scored the final four points of the quarter and started the second with four straight points to tie the score at 11-11.

Lake Forest outscored Libertyville 13-3 the rest of the quarter to build a 24-14 halftime lead and never looked back.

"We started to pressure them," said Lake Forest's Matt Vogrich, who finished with 15 points, 9 assists and 3 steals. "Whenever they got the ball, we doubled-team them to take them out of their element, and they started to turn the ball over a lot."

Lake Forest shot 18 of 38 from the floor for 47 percent, including six 3-pointers. The Scouts also shot 18 of 24 from the foul line.

Libertyville (7-8, 2-5) shot 15 of 39 for 39 percent from the floor.

Andy Timson led the Scouts with 16 points and Kevin Berardini added 8.

For the Wildcats, Jeremy Letchford had 16 points, 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

Joey Aiello scored 14 points and Paul Aynilian finished with 10 for the Wildcats.

"Lake Forest picked it up defensively and we just couldn't get any looks," Wildcat coach Scott Bogumil said. "They started to shoot well. Vogrich had a run himself with a 3 point shot and a big steal. He hurt us last time (too)."