Lakes, 66, Wauconda 59
It took quite awhile for host Lakes to shake Wauconda in North Suburban Conference boys basketball Friday night.
The Eagles only led 47-42 after three quarters, but a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter helped carry Lakes to a 66-59 NSC Prairie Division victory over the Bulldogs.
The Eagles (17-6, 8-2) led 47-44 with 7:30 to play, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Trey Williams boosted the lead to 53-44 with 6:31 to play.
Two free throws by Lakes' Kevin Guirand (game-high 18 points), 2 free throws by teammate Kevin Rice, and a 3-pointer by Mike Scott gave the Eagles their biggest lead at 60-44 with 3:32 to play.
"They're a tough defense with what they do, and Kevin Guirand and Dan Kalb really stepped up their rebounding tonight," said Williams, who scored 17 points. "We really wanted to focus our defense on 21 (Connor Dimick) because he hurt us the last time we played them."
Wauconda (10-13, 2-8) made a late fourth-quarter run to pull to within 63-54 with 1:21 remaining, but Lakes held on down the stretch.
Rice hit double figures with 13 points while Dimick led the Bulldogs with 13 points. Jessie Rodriguez had 12 points for Wauconda while four other Bulldogs had 6 points each.
"I thought we did some good things in the first half, but we just came out flat and I was a little disappointed with the effort in the third quarter," said Wauconda coach Rick Wolf, whose team lost the first meeting by 3 points. "We gave up way to much penetration from the guards, we didn't rotate well on defense, and these are things we worked on in practice."
Lakes led 32-29 at halftime before building a 39-29 lead early in the third quarter on Rice's third 3-pointer of the game. John Androus chipped in 8 points for the Eagles.
"I thought we picked up our defense in the second half and we hit some big shots midway through the fourth quarter to break away," said Lakes coach Brian Phelan, whose team has won four in a row. "Once we started reversing the ball, that opened things up and the offense seemed to run smoother."