Waukegan 64, Lake Forest 61
Neither team could sustain the momentum Wednesday night in the Class 4A Highland Park boys basketball regional.
No. 6 Lake Forest held a 10-point lead over No. 11 Waukegan late in the first half, only to see the Bulldogs take a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
The Scouts would take a brief 56-54 lead with a 12-0 fourth-quarter run, but Waukegan would pull out a 64-61 victory in a dogfight between two evenly matched teams.
The Bulldogs (13-13) will face the host Giants for the regional crown Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Lake Forest (15-11) led 32-22 after a 3-pointer by Kevin Berardini capped a 10-2 run with 2:01 left in the second quarter.
But Waukegan scored the final seven points of the first half to cut the gap to 32-29.
The elusive momentum stayed with the Bulldogs as they outscored the Scouts 21-11 in the third quarter to take a 50-43 lead into the final period.
Two free throws by Rashaan Melvin (team-high 24 points) gave Waukegan its biggest lead at 54-44 with 6:26 to play, but Lake Forest's Matt Vogrich (game-high 28 points) hit a 3-pointer for a 56-54 edge with 3:30 remaining.
That was the Scouts' final lead as Melvin came up with a huge steal and layup for a 62-59 lead with 33 seconds to play.
"We just stepped it up on defense and started anticipating the passing lanes in the second half," Melvin said. "We showed tonight that we were the team to beat and we came in focused and ready to play."
A turnaround jumper by Berardini (16 points) cut the lead to 62-61 with 21 seconds to go before the ball went off a Lake Forest player on a missed Waukegan free throw with 10.9 seconds left.
Melvin added a free throw with 8.8 seconds to play before Vogrich missed a drive with a chance to tie with 2 seconds to play. Melvin added a free throw with 0.1 seconds left to account for the final score.
"I thought our kids did a great job of battling back," said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala. "But I have to give Waukegan a lot of credit for withstanding our run in the end and they did a really good job of spacing the floor."
Roman Edingburg and Colin Nickerson scored 11 points each for Waukegan, while teammates Naudgee Carpenter and Mike Springs added 8 points apiece.
"We have very good guards and we have seniors who are committed to what we are doing," said Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw. "We didn't make too many mistakes in too many critical situations, and Melvin's leadership came through tonight in countless ways."