Bears play big, finish strong
Thank goodness Chris Baumann has dark hair.
Otherwise, it would be hard to tell the 6-foot-7, 195-pound center apart from his Lake Zurich basketball teammates Brandon Kunz (6-6, 205) and Danny Coleman (6-6, 195), both of whom not only are similarly built but wear their light-brown hair only slightly longer than crewcut length.
Baumann, a varsity rookie who produced 6 points and 8 rebounds coming off the bench in a 63-47 win over Guilford at Woodstock on Saturday, is the latest tall-and-skinny talent produced by the Bears.
"There's a couple of sophomores coming up, (too), all (built) similar," Baumann said. "They're a little shorter, but they have a year to grow."
Baumann and fellow backup Aaron Lewandowski provided a spark for Lake Zurich on a day leading scorer Connor Mooney struggled shooting from the floor. Mooney, who missed his first 7 shots (all but one from three-point range), finished with 11 points, as he went 6 of 6 from the foul line.
Kunz led Lake Zurich, which finished 3-1 in the Belvidere/Woodstock Hoops for Healing tournament, with team highs of 12 points and 11 rebounds. The senior also had 4 blocked shots.
"It definitely wasn't a Connor-like game," coach John Zarr said. 'Typically he's knocking down all kinds of shots. But this team has a lot of different weapons."
Lewandowski included. The 6-3 forward scored 6 of his 11 points (5-of-6 shooting) in the second quarter, helping the Bears go into halftime with a 33-21 cushion.
Baumann scored on an offensive rebound and had 3 boards total in the second quarter.
"Both (Baumann and Lewandowski) came off the bench and really gave us some quality minutes," Zarr said. "When you have five seniors playing in front of you, that's how you earn playing time. and they're going to get it. They're earning it."
"This was, by far, my best game," said Baumann, who made 3 of 5 shots. "We needed somebody to come in and pick us up. So it was me and Aaron."
Coleman added 10 points and 5 rebounds, while Austin Cox chipped in 9 points (two 3-pointers).
Guilford (2-2) received 17 points from Leandre Harmon. Dontay Hanson had 16 points and 8 rebounds (7 offensive).
Lake Zurich bounced back after losing to Hononegah less than 24 hours earlier.
"It was just nice to get back and get that bitter taste out of our mouth from (Friday) night," said Zarr, whose team tipped off at noon. "We felt fortunate that we had a game close to our loss, in terms of a turnaround. We felt good taking the court today at noon and getting back on the right track."
Hononegah 61, Round Lake 34: First-year Round Lake coach Howard Kravets didn't like what he was seeing from his young team early on, so he called a timeout.
The game, mind you, was scoreless and all of 63 seconds old.
"We knew (Hononegah) would be in a zone and we talked about where we'd need to be, and one kid was not in the right spot," Kravets said. "I would not burn a timeout there normally, but I'm at the point right now where they need to do what I want them to do."
Kravets knows his team will suffer lots of growing pains this season, so the Panthers' 61-34 loss Saturday in their finale of the Belvidere/Woodstock Hoops for Healing tournament wasn't shocking.
In addition, the Pantheres were playing a Hononegah squad that finished 4-0 in the tourney.
Round Lake (0-4) trailed 14-2 after one quarter, got within 18-10 in the second quarter, but couldn't sustain any momentum.
Dustin Meier had 11 points and 10 rebounds for Hononegah. Lennox Davis' 8 points paced Round Lake. Jon Martinez collected 7 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
"This is going to be a process," Kravets said. "Overall, the kids are working very hard. They're doing what we're asking them to do. They have great attitudes, and the effort's there. We've played four games, and other than this game, the other three games we were it the whole way."