Evans, Lake Zurich able to ice Grant in bruising battle
Before he could even think about getting on the bus for the return trip home, Chas. Evans needed to find some ice.
After enduring his team's most physical game of the season Friday night at Grant, the Lake Zurich guard was ready to bury himself in the cold stuff from head to toe.
"I was just on my way to get ice because my thighs, my elbows, my face - they're all sore," Evans said. "There were a lot of elbows out there. You definitely got bumped around. It was very physical."
Evans, who took a sharp, inadvertent blow to the face at one point and was hitting the deck throughout a very loosely-called game, may wind up with more bruises than points. And he had 11 of those in helping Lake Zurich escape Fox Lake with a deceivingly hard-fought 60-25 North Suburban Conference crossover victory.
The win moves Lake Zurich, which got a game-high 16 points out of Connor Mooney and a career-high 10 blocks out of 6-foot-6 center Brandon Kunz, to 10-11 overall.
Grant drops to 11-9 while tallying a season-low in points.
"It's the most physical game we've played all season. Hands down," Lake Zurich coach John Zarr said. "It was extremely physical and I was very pleased with the way our kids handled it. They didn't back away from it. They played right with it.
"We made an adjustment to the way the game was being played and called. (Grant) came out and set some hard screens and we just had to get through it. We were able to play that style and still get some things done. There was a lot (that was let go) both ways and we recognized that and we were able to persevere."
The Bears did more than that. They dominated the second half with a defense that couldn't have been much more stingy.
Grant scored just 2 baskets, and a total of 8 points, after halftime, when they trailed by only 7 points at 24-17.
Lake Zurich began the third quarter on a 16-3 run. Meanwhile, not only were the Bulldogs not scoring, they weren't even shooting the ball much. They took just nine shots in the quarter.
With all of those blocks, Kunz likely had a lot to do with that. He and his low-post partner in crime, 6-foot-6 forward Danny Coleman, made the Bulldogs think twice about ever bringing the ball inside.
And that's what Grant likes to do most.
Gilbert Sheehan, Grant's leading scorer and big presence inside, was held to just 9 points, the first time all season he hasn't scored in double figures.
"It seemed like everything we put up their big guys were knocking them everywhere," said Grant coach Wayne Bosworth, who saw Lake Zurich outscore his team 18-2 in the fourth quarter. "Our guys left it all on the court and played probably as hard as they have all year. But we were just outmanned.
"We were able to make some shots early, but that intensity (of Lake Zurich's) just wore us down in the second half. We're not used to that night in and night out like they are. They just play a different style over there in the (NSC) Lake Division. I'm sure every game's not like this one, but they're probably not too far off. (Lake Zurich) was able to get through it in the second half and our guys got physically tired."