Paul rallies Warren to win over Lake Zurich
It wasn't the first time, and knowing Brandon Paul, it won't be the last.
The superstar Warren guard has a reputation for being able to take over a game just about any time he wants, and he did it again on Friday night.
Interestingly, what happened in the wake of his heroics actually was a first-time experience for Paul.
He was hoisted upon the shoulders of several elated fans and paraded around the floor.
It seemed apropos. After all, this was a pretty big game Paul took over...and in just the nick of time.
Warren trailed Lake Zurich by 9 points heading into the fourth quarter of the Class 4A regional title game that was held on Lake Zurich's own floor. Paul helped erase that deficit by scoring 14 of his game-high 32 points in the quarter and the Blue Devils escaped with a 69-62 win.
The victory moves fourth-seeded Warren to 22-5 on the season and into Tuesday's sectional semifinal (7:30 p.m.) against No. 1 Lake Forest at Waukegan's old East Campus Gym.
The other semifinal, which will be played on Wednesday, pits No. 3 Zion-Benton against No. 2 Waukegan.
"That was the first time ever," Paul said of being carried off the court. "My two best friends came and got me. It felt pretty good getting to do that."
Of course, the victory felt even better, especially since it was so hard to come by.
Lake Zurich, the No. 10 seed, was ahead for much of the game, thanks to hot shooting and very few mistakes.
Connor Mooney rolled up 10 second-quarter points for the Bears, and they went into the locker room at halftime feeling good, up 36-25.
"I was telling the guys that this was our game to win," said Mooney, who finished with a team-high 21 points. "We played well, extremely well, for three-and-a-half quarters. We were all clicking. I thought we were playing Warren to a T...to a T."
But then Lake Zurich got a hefty dose of "BP," which is what Paul's teammates call him.
After Aaron Montgomery, who has been in and out of the starting lineup all season while trying to find some consistency, hit the biggest three-pointer of his life to cut Warren's deficit to 58-54 with 4:04 left, Paul then went to work.
He nonchalantly hit a 3-pointer and then eventually another jumper to put Warren up 61-60 with 2:34 left. The Blue Devils would never fall behind again.
"I pretty much thought to myself, 'This is our team, our year and I've got to take over because they're looking for me to be a leader,' " said Paul, who tweaked his already sore right ankle at the beginning of the game but somehow got only tougher as the game went on. "That's what I wanted to do because I didn't want to end the season on a bad note.
"We're a strong team. We kept our focus and our poise and we just played hard."
So did Lake Zurich. But like so many times this season, even that wasn't good enough for the Bears, who close out the year at 16-13.
They played Warren two other times this season and lost those games by a combined 7 points. Of their 13 losses, 11 were by less than 10 points and seven were by 4 points or less.
"I'm really proud of our guys," said Warren coach Chuck Ramsey, who also got 14 points out of forward Jake Anderson. "I don't think any other top four-seeded team in the state had as tough of an assignment as we did and to come over here and get behind a really good team like we did...our guys stuck with it and just kept grinding away.
"It was quite a win for us."