Lake Zurich 61, Stevenson 45

Well, look who's in the Class 4A regional finals at Palatine: The 14th-seed in the Barrington sectional, Lake Zurich.

And why not? The Bears won for the eighth time in their last nine outings Tuesday night, a 61-45 regional semifinal win over North Suburban Conference rival Stevenson, the sectional's No. 4 seed.

The Bears play for the regional title Friday night against tonight's Rolling Meadows-Buffalo Grove winner.

"These kids are doing so many things so well," said LZ coach John Zarr of his 17-11 team. "I think tonight they put it all together for four quarters. Our balance was outstanding."

Leading scorer Connor Mooney agreed. The 5-foot-9 junior point guard had only 2 points through three quarters as Stevenson's Jeffrey Levitt really clamped down on him. But it didn't matter. The Bears still had a 36-26 lead thanks to center Brandon Kunz' (13 points) dominance inside, with help from forward Brandon Baum, while Chas Evans (12) picked up the slack from the perimeter until Mooney found his stroke.

And he found it in the fourth quarter, hitting 4 of 6 from the field, including two 3-pointers, and 4 of his free throws for a team-high 16. But to him the important thing was, "We had four people in double figures."

"He's still a great player," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said of Mooney, "He hit the big shots at the end, he made the big plays."

Meanwhile, he had his hands full with Stevenson's (19-8) Kevin Stineman, whom he made work hard for his 17 points.

"Stineman's a great player. All we wanted to do was contain him," said Mooney, who had suffered five straight losses to the Pats, including three last year and two earlier this year.

Dylan Richter chipped in with his usual game around the basket, scoring 16 points, but he never got enough help to overcome Kunz, Baum and Andy Garlisch (10 points) inside.

"We kind of stunted ourselves offensively," said Ambrose. "We looked challenged offensively."

"We talk about it as a mindset," Zarr said of his team's defensive effort. "From a coach's perspective, from a team perspective, you're starting to see them come together."