Stevenson 58, Warren 55

Warren might be under .500 in North Suburban Conference Lake Division action and in the midst of a rare down year, but don't tell that to Stevenson.

The Patriots will celebrate their clean sweep just the same, thank you very much.

Stevenson knocked off the Blue Devils in Gurnee earlier this season and finished the job in the series finale Saturday night in Lincolnshire by posting a 58-55 victory that was not nearly as close as the final score would indicate.

The Patriots move to 14-6 overall and 7-2 in Lake action while Warren, which had been the most dominant team in Lake County for the last decade, drops to 10-8 and 4-6 in the Lake.

"(Warren) is not the same team that it usually is," said Stevenson guard Kevin Stineman. "But losing twice as a freshman by like 20 points and then losing twice as a sophomore, it definitely feels good as a senior to beat the team that you kept losing to all those years."

Stineman and forward Dylan Richter led four players in double-figures with 14 points apiece. The Patriots also got 11 points from both Daniel Rebnord and sophomore guard Jeff Levitt.

"It's definitely a pretty big thing to be able to beat Warren twice in one season because they're a great team," Richter said. "Someone (in the locker room) was saying we hadn't done that in like 15 or 16 years here.

Those associated with Stevenson are a little hazy on the exact lapse of time between sweeps of Warren. But Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose knows one thing for certain.

"It's the first time (a sweep of Warren) has happened in my tenure here and I've been here nine years," Ambrose said. "The kids feel some pride in that. Anytime you beat a good team twice in one season, you're kind of indicating that you're better than them for that particular season."

On this night, Stevenson shot the ball better than Warren -- that's for sure.

The Patriots connected at a 51 percent clip while Warren hit just 36 percent of its shots.

The difference was most noticeable in the second quarter, when Stevenson extended a 14-12 lead to a halftime advantage of 32-21.

"They shot 8-of-11 (from the field) and got 5 or 6 layups in the second quarter," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "That was pretty much the ball game right there.

"They got better shots than we did and they shot the ball better. We got some (good) shots that we just missed. But I would think some of that has to be because of their defense. Stevenson is probably the best defensive team around."

Warren star guard Brandon Paul managed to ring up a game-high 18 points. But 8 of those came in the fourth quarter with Stevenson already in command.

Until the Blue Devils went on a 9-1 run in the final 40 seconds, the closest they got before that over the final period was 7 points.

"It does mean something for a guy like Chuck Ramsey to say that (Stevenson is the best defensive team around)," Ambrose said. "We work on it. We teach defense all the time.

"We got some really good defense out of Jeff Levitt. He's a fantastic defensive player. He was on Paul the entire game. He has a lot of defensive pride."

Forward James Poliquin played with a lot of pride for Warren.

Poliquin has missed multiple games this season because of a severe ankle injury and was out almost all of this past week with the stomach flu.

But he gave Warren a lift in the second quarter by scoring 6 of his 8 points.

The Blue Devils also got 11 points from Jake Anderson and 10 points from David Duncan.

"I just tried to do as much as I could," Poliquin said. "I tried to contribute like everyone else.

"Stevenson is just a very good defensive team. They made it tough on us."