Lake Zurich can't keep up with Loyola

A quick start for Lake Zurich's girls basketball team had the Bears looking good for about eight minutes on Friday afternoon.

Then the Bears hit a wall and Loyola Academy's defense wouldn't budge the rest of the way.

The Ramblers turned away the Bears 60-49 in the Holiday Showcase tournament hosted by Montini in Lombard.

Meghan Holy led Loyola (13-1, 4-0) with a career-high 28 points and 10 rebounds, and Katherine Wheeler added 17 points including 3 treys.

The Bears (12-3 overall) suffered their second straight loss and fell to 2-2 in the tournament.

Both Audrey Bauer and her sister Lydia had 11 points in the opening quarter as the Bears jumped out to a 15-4 advantage.

"We came our with some energy in the first quarter," Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said. "But then (Loyola Academy) turned the pressure up a couple of notches and we didn't respond at all. (Loyola Academy) got on a roll and we've got trouble getting out of it sometimes."

Lake Zurich fell apart by turning the ball over 10 times in the second quarter. The Bears finished with 23 turnovers.

The Ramblers took advantage, outscoring the Bears 22-9 in the second quarter to lead 26-24 at the half.

"The past two to three games we've started out slow," Loyola Academy coach Jeremy Shoenecker said. "We were able to press a little bit and the defense got us right back into the game. Our defensive intensity picked up for us. We got steals, and we're able to score in transition."

The Bears kept the game close in the early stages of the third quarter, when Lydia Bauer made a rebound putback, making the score 28-27 in Loyola's favor with 7:20 left. But the Ramblers used their pressure defense and went on a 16-4 run as Holy completed a 3-point play which to give Loyola a 44-31 lead with 2:14 remaining in the third quarter.

"We really worked to get open and we wanted to beat them on the fastbreak," said Holy, who had 1 point in the opening quarter but 27 over the final three. "When I go on a run, it fires up the rest of the team to get things going."

The Ramblers held a double-digit lead through the fourth quarter.

Lake Zurich will finish play in the Holiday Showcase against Lake Park at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Ramblers are in the championship game against Montini at 3:30 p.m. All games will be played at Loyola Academy in Wilmette.