Lake Zurich earns tip of the cap, NSC championship

Lydia Bauer accepted the North Suburban Conference Lake Division trophy. Fellow senior Coryn Schmit walked back to her teammates with the bigger prize, the NSC championship hardware.

Then, after Lake Zurich's basketball girls pocketed some netting they had just cut down from the rims in their gym, they received caps - capping their night, so to speak.

They had earned a tip of the cap thanks to their 44-37 win over NSC Prairie champ Round Lake in the conference championship game Wednesday night before a large crowd at Lake Zurich. Then, athletic director Rolly Vazquez started distributing to each player and coach a white knitted winter cap with the words "2009 NSC champs" sewn in blue.

The caps were a gift from Pete Froehlich, whose daughter Jenna is a junior guard for the Bears.

"I thought that was really cool," said Bauer, who led the Bears with a game-high 15 points, 7 rebounds and 5 steals. "That was such a nice thing to do for us."

And if Round Lake had won? Bauer says she heard the caps would have been given to the Panthers.

Lake Zurich (25-5), which won its first NSC crown in its four years in the conference, made sure that wasn't going to happen by slowly pulling away from its opponent in the fourth quarter.

Olivia Allen (13 points, 6 rebounds) drained a 3-pointer from the right corner early in the fourth, and her shot was key, as it extended the Bears' lead to 31-24. Audrey Bauer delivered the pass.

"We talked the whole time about trying to go inside-outside," said Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett, whose team led only 28-24 after three. "That was a nice play from the strong side to the high post to the weak side. We finally got a wide-open look and she knocked it down."

Lake Zurich eventually extended its advantage to 12, when Audrey Bauer (10 points, 10 rebounds) made 2 free throws with 52.9 seconds left.

That all but sealed the fate of Round Lake, which was playing in its first NSC title game since 2001, when it lost to Stevenson.

"We had a couple of stretches where we did not play very well, but I thought overall we played hard," Panthers coach Gary Edge said. "I thought we did what we do pretty well, especially in the second and third quarters."

Round Lake used a zone defense to slow the pace of the game.

And while the Panthers trailed by as many as 11 points in the opening half and were down 24-15 at the break, they outscored the Bears 9-4 in the third.

"It did what we wanted it to do," Edge said of the zone.

"I know they transition well and they have some pretty decent shooters. But I thought we played it exceptionally well in the second and third quarters.

"We had a couple of breakdowns in the fourth and they hit some free throws down the stretch. We missed a mittful of shots early that sort of us hurt us."

As the season has gone on, Lake Zurich has seen more and more zone defenses.

"Definitely since the beginning of the season we've been able to adjust since we've played so many zones," said Lydia Bauer, who helped foil the zone with a pair of 3-pointers in the first half. "I think we've really learned the looks that we need to be making in the zone."

Labrenthia Murdock led Round Lake in scoring with 13 points, while Amber Phillips added 11 and 7 rebounds.

"They're a nice team," Bennett said. "Labrenthia Murdock is a nice player, and they have two really nice post players in Phillips and (Ashley) Miller."