Lisle falls into Walther Lutheran's trap

Lisle fell into a trap, Walther Lutheran-style, Saturday night on its home court.

Springing double-teams near midcourt, Walther forced 20 turnovers to turn a 2-point deficit midway through the second quarter into a 53-37 nonconference win.

"They would anticipate who we would throw to next and then make the steal," said Lisle coach Mark LaScala, his club dropping to 5-9 on the season.

"We wanted to maintain our composure," he said, "and that's not an easy thing to do when you have two kids who are bigger and quicker than you in your face."

Lisle's Marcus Wilson scored to give Lisle an 18-16 lead at 4:12 of the second quarter. Over the next quarter and a half Walther Lutheran (9-7) forced 9 turnovers and outscored the Lions 29-11 to take a 45-29 lead into the fourth.

"It sometimes looks a little chaotic," Broncos coach Bob Koehne said of the defensive trap, "but they know where they're supposed to be.

"The hope is to get the other team not knowing where the trap's coming from and to keep them off balance, and I think we did a good job of that."

Lisle guard Jay Osika said, "One of our problems was people weren't checking back, they were just kind of running downcourt.

"With a double-team you've got to check back and give help to the guy who's getting doubled, and that kind of hurt us all night long."

When sticky on-the-ball defender Jeremy James converted his own steal for a layup and a 10-2 Walther lead, it appeared the Broncos might dominate all night long.

But Lisle's Lee Gorski and Ryan Liss came off the bench and made their mark with a respective 6 and 13 points.

Liss scored on a drive and converted the rare 4-point play when fouled on a 3 and sinking the free throw to get Lisle within 12-8 after one quarter. Liss scored to start the second then Gorski and Wilson alternated baskets to give the Lions their 18-16 lead.

Walther's top player, Brandon Smith, sat with foul trouble, but off the bench came Brandon Sims with two 3s to reclaim a 22-18 halftime lead. Sims led the Broncos with 13 points, stunning the Lions until the defense brought them down.

LaScala saw the bright side.

"I do think it helped us, and we grew," he said. "I think by the end of the third we'd gotten our bearings back and figured some things out and hopefully we'll be a better team next time it comes at us."