Lisle offense gets in gear

In the finale of Lisle's Playing for Pride Shootout on Saturday, Hartsburg-Emden left the back door wide open and the host Lions barged through.

Running offense as effectively as the Stags were erratic from long range, Lisle's backdoor cuts and flashes into the post enabled 26-of-48 shooting from the floor in a 71-42 victory.

"We did a good job screening today, so a lot of those cuts were open," said Lisle center Tyler Triplett, who scored 8 points with 11 rebounds and worked the high-low game with forward Chris Wray, who scored 15 points.

"We're a good cutting team and screening team," Triplett said. "We've got a lot of big bodies, so our screens and cuts are good and they didn't defend it very well."

Lisle (3-5) required little defense to go up 22-8 after a quarter, 34-16 at the half.

Hartsburg-Emden (2-5) came out looking to penetrate and pass for a variety of mainly unsuccessful shots.

The Stags, who fell into a 20-2 hole, made 2 of 25 3-point shots and 14 of 63 overall.

Lisle guard Marcus Wilson scored 9 of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter. He added 7 more in the third, a Lisle spree partially fueled by a 16-5 rebounding advantage that had the hosts leading 56-24 going into the fourth quarter.

"It builds our confidence, most definitely," said Wilson, the game's most valuable player. "It gives us a lot of confidence to play our conference games."

Freshman Cody Bolen led Hartsburg-Emden - enrollment 93 - with 13 points. Guard Jay Osika added 12 points for Lisle, whose ball-sharing ways and 17-of-22 free-throw shooting allowed happy coach Mark LaScala to empty his bench.

"I hope that the light bulb went on and we've seen the light, so to speak, to let the offense work a little bit as opposed to trying to force a tough situation 1-on-1," LaScala said.