Paul, Warren hold off Lake Zurich

Coaches think like, well, other coaches.

It was interesting to hear Warren coach Chuck Ramsey and Lake Zurich coach John Zarr describe almost identically the intangibles they thought could have played a major factor in their game Friday night.

Warren was coming off a huge win over archrival Zion-Benton, a team with two Division I recruits that is ranked among the best in the state, and had just a single day to recuperate and prepare for Lake Zurich.

Lake Zurich, on the other hand, had an entire week to practice for Warren and was hungry to earn some consideration as another top team in the area.

"Coming off a big win like that, I think everything was set against us (for a letdown)," Ramsey said. "It's hard to duplicate that kind of effort but you need to (for Lake Zurich). Lake Zurich is a very good team."

So while Ramsey cautioned his players about a letdown, Zarr convinced his that, for that very reason, now was the perfect time for them to get their first-ever North Suburban Lake Division win on Warren's floor.

"We talked about that possibility (of a Warren letdown)," Zarr said. "We talked about how this was a perfect time for us to be coming in here."

The Bears timing, however, wound up being off by just a hair.

Showing few, if any, signs of a letdown, Warren came out tough for the second game in a row and pulled off yet another big win, edging Lake Zurich 64-60 in a nip-and-tuck affair that was salted away by some late free throws.

The victory moves the Blue Devils to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the NSC Lake. Lake Zurich drops to 3-2 and 0-1.

"Lake Zurich has a lot of experience (three starters with three years of varsity experience each), a lot of good players and they just play really well together," Warren forward James Poliquin said. "We knew that we had to keep up the same intensity we had for Zion-Benton. We got real active for Zion-Benton and we had to do the same tonight otherwise we'd just be giving back that (victory) to Zion-Benton."

Poliquin did his part. He put together a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. He was one of four Blue Devils to reach double-figures.

Illinois-bound guard Brandon Paul led the way with 20 points while Shahron Thomas and Jake Anderson also had 13 points each for Warren.

"(Another big win in the span of three days) just shows we are a good team, too," Poliquin said. "There aren't really any bad teams in Lake County."

The Blue Devils finally gained some breathing room by stringing together a 7-0 run midway through the fourth quarter that yielded them a 59-53 lead. But, thanks in part to a big three-pointer by Connor Mooney (game-high 22 points), Lake Zurich wouldn't go away and cut its deficit to 60-58 with 18 seconds left.

Ironically, missed free throws down the stretch prevented Lake Zurich from turning the corner completely. The Bears were 5-of-9 in the fourth quarter and made good on just 55 percent of their freebies on the game.

Entering the game, they had been hitting better than 80 percent of their free throws as a team.

"That was a huge factor and maybe that's what we take from this game, just the lesson of how important hitting free throws can be," said Lake Zurich forward Brandon Kunz, who scored 20 points and pulled down a game-high 17 rebounds. "We really wanted to come in here and knock off Warren. We talked about that a lot."