Lakes 69, Gordon Tech 36
Lakes' boys basketball team took a different approach to its regional opener.
"We got down here ridiculously early and hung out at a restaurant nearby," coach Brian Phelan said. "It's new coming down here with time and travel."
The Eagles made the long trip to River Grove on Tuesday well worth it.
Seeded third in the Class 3A Antioch sectional, Lakes coasted past No. 19 Gordon Tech 69-36 in a semifinal of the Guerin regional.
The victory gave Lakes 20 wins for the first time in its three-year history. The Eagles (20-7) will play in the regional final Friday night back in River Grove against the winner of tonight's game between No. 6 Guerin and No. 11 Chicago Uplift.
Kevin Guirand led Lakes with a game-high 19 points, 16 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 blocked shots. Dan Kalb chipped in 14 points and 6 rebounds, while Kevin Rice and Trey Williams each had 10 points. John Androus added eight.
"We like the gym," Phelan said. "It's a cross of Buffalo Grove and Grant. It's kind of old-school with yellow lighting. Our kids seemed to like the floor."
Apparently so.
While Guirand didn't score in the opening quarter, he pulled down 7 rebounds, dished out several assists and swatted a couple of shots, helping Lakes jump out to a 17-9 advantage over Gordon Tech (3-24).
"We were trying to get everybody going and trying to get everyone involved in the game," Guirand said. "I like to watch my teammates score, because it makes me work less harder on offense. It helps me work harder on defense, where I should be."
Guirand got his scoring going in the second quarter with 8 points, as Lakes extended its lead to 35-19 by halftime. The Eagles never looked back.
"We moved the ball and shared the ball with a lot of people getting assists," Phelan said. "It was a good win and we got some playoff experience."
-- Rusty Silber
Grayslake C. 72, Northtown Academy 34: Not only was Grayslake Central well prepared for its boys basketball regional opener Tuesday night, but the Rams did a great job of executing their game plan.
No. 2 Grayslake Central jumped ahead of No. 18 Northtown Academy of Chicago 26-10 after one quarter and never looked back, as the Rams posted a lopsided 72-34 victory in the Fenton Class 3A regional.
Grayslake Central (21-6) will play for the regional championship at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of tonight's game between No. 7 Fenton and No. 10 Wauconda.
Northtown Academy (6-17) upset No. 14 Lake View Monday, but the Pumas could not contend with the Rams, who continued building to their lead. Grayslake Central was up 44-22 at halftime.
Sophomore forward Andrew Sipes had 12 of his 14 points in the first half behind some strong offensive rebounding. Rams junior Mike Brumm also scored 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
"We came out and put them away early and that is what we wanted to do," said Brumm. "The key Friday is to just run our offense, play our defense, and get the job done."
After a strong first-half showing, Grayslake Central really stepped up its defense in the second half, as the Rams outscored Northtown Academy 18-6 in the third quarter to take a 62-28 advantage into the final period.
It was a dunk by junior David Bell off a steal by teammate Aaron Snyder that gave Central its 34-point lead heading into the fourth period. The 6-foot-4 Bell almost dunked over a Northtown player in the fourth quarter, but the ball rattled out of the hoop.
Kevin O'Rourke scored all 8 of his points in the first half for the Rams, while sophomore teammate Josh Rappaport scored all 9 of his points in the second half. Mike Davis added 7 points in Grayslake Central's balanced offensive effort.
"We wanted to get out to a pretty good start and we wanted to get used to the court for the first game of the regional," said Grayslake Central coach Tim Bowen, whose team outrebounded the Pumas 31-23. "We just wanted to play good pressure defense and we knew they were going to try to get to the basket."
Senior Josh Ramirez was the only Northtown Academy player who was able to get to the basket with any sort of consistency, as he led the Pumas with a team-high 14 points.
"We've had a pretty good year of balanced scoring and our transition game was pretty good in the first half," Bowen said. "It was just a nice game and we would like to come out with some great intensity on Friday."
-- John Bumbales
N. Chicago 97, Prosser 45: At Vernon Hills, Keith Ford scored a game-high 20 points for the top-seeded Warhawks, who advanced to Friday's Class 3A regional final against the winner of tonight's game between No. 8 Vernon Hills and No. 9 Amundsen.
North Chicago also received 14 points from Kentrall Wilson.
Highland Park 37, Fremd 28: Facing Highland Park's high-octane offense, the Fremd boys basketball team wanted a low-scoring game.
Things were going according to plan as the Vikings controlled the tempo in the opening period and had the game tied at 6-6 early in the second quarter.
Down 14-9 at halftime, Fremd was in prime position for an upset. But the No. 3 seeded Giants opened the third quarter on a 10-4 run on the way to a 37-28 win in the Class 4A Highland Park regional semifinals.
The 15th-seeded Vikings (12-15) used a strong defensive effort to keep the game close but couldn't overcome Highland Park's outside shooting.
"This team can hit a 3 at any given time," said Fremd center Will Reising, who scored 9 points. "If you leave any of their shooters open they can knock their shots down."
Chris Wroblewski led Highland Park with 18 points and 4 steals.
"They're a very solid team," Vikings coach Bob Widlowski said. "They don't make a lot of mistakes and we needed to capitalize on every possession that we had."
-- Joe Esse