Lakes wins third game in a row
North Chicago may have the North Suburban Prairie Division championship locked up, but the race for second place is still going on.
Lakes is very much in the hunt, winning again Friday night as John Androus' 21 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds and Chris Boehm's season-high 19 points led the visiting Eagles to a 74-53 win over Wauconda.
Lakes (11-12, 7-3) has won three games in a row for the first time this season.
"We played very well at times and very sloppy at others," Eagles coach Brian Phelan said. "(Wauconda) played hard all game. It was impressive."
Wauconda (3-19, 0-10) started the game with a 9-2 run, but Lakes recovered to grab a 17-12 lead after one quarter and was up 31-26 at halftime.
The Bulldogs had a 13-0 run in the third quarter, but the Eagles responded after a technical foul on Phelan, as they scored 22 unanswered points to put the game out of reach.
Justin Hotle added 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists for Lakes.
Wauconda's Eric Hartnett led all scorers with 22 points, while Matt Stonis added 12 for the Bulldogs.
Vernon Hills 63, Round Lake 46: Riaz Hoveydai scored 20 points for the Cougars in the North Suburban Prairie Division battle.
Vernon Hills (12-9, 6-2) also received 11 points apiece from Brian Smith and DaVaris Daniels. Art Royzengurt and Chris Morgan chipped in 10 and 9, respectively.
Round Lake (3-19, 2-8) was led in scoring by Juddon Carter and John Martinez with 11 points apiece.
CL Central 47, Grayslake North 41: Ross Sauer had 16 points and Grant Henricksen 10 for the Knights (7-13, 0-5 Fox Valley Fox).
Prairie Ridge 59, Grayslake Central 53: The Rams (15-7, 4-1) saw their seven-game winning streak snapped.
Zion-Benton 100, Mundelein 55: The Mustangs (9-14, 1-8 North Suburban Lake) lost their sixth in a row.
BG 72, Wheeling 67: Buffalo Grove and Wheeling learned the same lesson Friday in their Mid-Suburban East boys basketball game on Senior Night: No lead is safe in the MSL.
The host Bison raced out to a 26-8 lead after one quarter, and everyone involved could have been excused for thinking a Wheeling comeback wasn't in the cards.
Not only did the Wildcats (7-13, 2-6) make a game of it, they led 67-64 with just 1:07 left in the game. That's when the pendulum swung back in BG's favor. The Bison scored 8 unanswered points in the final 54.3 seconds and emerged 72-67 winners.
James Hurley scored 11 of his team-high 18 points in the first quarter, as the Bison (14-8, 5-3) could do no wrong, while the visitors were hard-pressed to find anything that worked. BG led 14-2 and scored 10 of the final 12 points of the quarter.
It looked like the rout was on.
"You kind of get that in the back of your mind," said Mike Cornely, who scored 17 points for the balanced Bison attack.
That thought was nowhere in Wheeling coach Lou Wool's mind. He switched from a man-to-man to a trapping zone, which the Wildcats used the rest of the way. A 13-2 run gave the Wildcats some confidence and momentum, and sophomore Preston Harvey's (11 points) bank shot from half-court at the halftime horn cut the deficit to 34-26.
"Any team in the East is physical and plays hard," said Kevin Mulligan (16 points). "We tried to keep that momentum, but their zone slowed us down."
Wheeling continued the comeback in the third quarter, finally tying the score at 40-40 on a 3-point play by Robert Carter (11 points) with 4:02 left. Michael Zimmer's basket with 3:10 remaining gave Wheeling its first lead of the game at 42-40.
The Wildcats took a 49-46 lead into the fourth quarter, when James Kurtz scored 11 of his team-best 18 points, including a pair of 3-point plays. Harvey's free throws with 1:07 left gave Wheeling its last lead at 67-64.
- Larry Weindruch