Cats' effort falls just short again

Libertyville forward Greg Vente was wearing street clothes and hobbling around on crutches Saturday after spraining his ankle in an overtime loss at Zion-Benton the previous night.

His team, meanwhile, limped out of its own gym after suffering a 60-49 loss to Glenbrook North in a nonconference matinee.

The loss stretched Libertyville's season-worst losing streak to five games.

"I think we're a good team, and I'm saying 'think' because we just haven't proved it," Wildcats coach Scott Bogumil said. "We need to get on a roll. We get some teams now that maybe we match up a little bit better with, and we'll see what we can do."

The good news for Libertyville (8-13) is that it doesn't play a ranked team this week. The Wildcats' last five opponents -- Glenbrook North, Zion-Benton, Warren, St. Charles East and Stevenson -- all boast winning records. The Wildcats visit Barrington on Tuesday and Lake Zurich on Thursday.

"It's not like we're playing bad," Libertyville guard Joey Aiello said. "We're finding ways to lose. We're not finding ways to win."

Take the third quarter against Glenbrook North (16-5).

Libertyville wiped out a 26-20 halftime deficit by hitting its first 5 shots of the third quarter. Included were back-to-back 3-pointers by Aiello, who led the Wildcats with 18 points. Big Jeremy Letchford opened the half by hitting a 3.

Aiello's second 3-pointer capped a 13-0 run and had the home team up 33-26.

But after Alex Dragicevich drained a 3 with 3:56 left for Glenbrook North's first points of the second half, the Spartans' zone press caused a turnover on the ensuing inbounds pass, and Brian Peel converted a layup.

Another steal off another inbounds resulted in a three-point play by Dragicevich.

That made it 8 points in 12 seconds, putting Glenbrook North up 34-33.

"I think we knew from then on that we weren't going to give this game up," Peel said. "We were going to finish it out."

Glenbrook North never relinquished its advantage, although Libertyville got within 51-47 on a turnaround shot by Letchford with 3:23 to go in the fourth.

Peel was huge in the final quarter, scoring 15 of his game- and season-high 21 points. The senior forward sat most of the first three quarters because of foul trouble.

"He's a great player," Spartans coach Dave Weber said. "He was sick all of December. When we lost those five games, he wasn't with us a lot. Now that he's back, we got that inside threat and we got some perimeter guys."

"When he's got space, he's really good -- a dead-on shooter," Bogumil said of Peel.

"He just killed us."

Dragicevich finished with 18 points, hitting 4 of 4 free throws down the stretch to help keep Libertyville at bay. Tyler Ponticelli added 13 points.

Letchford finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds. Josh Trees added 10 points for the Wildcats, while Erik Jensen grabbed 7 rebounds.

"We have a good group of guys," Aiello said. "I'm not worried. I think we're going to start playing well."