Carmel likes the answer it gets against Lakes

Two games into a season, most basketball teams still have far more questions than answers.

But of the answers Carmel has gotten so far, few have disappointed.

"We're going on 20 years now that we haven't had a winning season at Carmel," second-year boys coach John Ryan said. "We're trying to change that."

The Corsairs are more on track now than they have been in years.

Carmel upped its record to 2-0 on Tuesday with a 59-47 victory over Lakes in the Thanksgiving Tournament at Mundelein High School. On Monday, the Corsairs, who finished 6-22 last season and 4-24 the season before that, defeated Loyola.

"At school, people are like, 'You're going to get killed tonight,'" said Carmel senior forward Jonathan Huisel, who joined the varsity as a sophomore and has been listening to the same doubters for years. "We want to get that reputation off our back. It would be huge for the program for us to have a good season and I think we can do it. We're a good team and we've worked hard. This is the best group we've had in a long time.

"In past years that I've played here, it was like we were never always into the games. So far this year, every time, every time out, we're pumped, we're ready. It's good to see."

The Corsairs also saw some resiliency in themselves en route to this victory.

They were up by as many as 13 points at the beginning of the fourth quarter but allowed Lakes to cut that gap to 6 points with about two minutes remaining.

Lakes needed to keep pressuring and pressing to continue to make things happen, and often, that led to foul situations.

The Corsairs showed no mercy and calmly sunk 8 straight free throws to cinch the game.

"That was huge," Ryan said. "For us to handle the pressure like that and hold them off and finish the game, that's very important for us."

Huisel and Carmel's other big man, Daniel Feld, were equally important.

Once Carmel's guards got past Lakes' defensive pressure, they were able to feed the post and the 6-foot-6 Huisel and the 6-foot-5 Feld took advantage.

Huisel tallied a team-high 17 points while Feld chipped in with 13 points.

"I thought our posts played really good today," Huisel said. "Everyone was strong. Our guards were doing a good job of bringing the ball up and when we got it, we were finishing."

Guard John Busse helped Huisel finish off Lakes. Busse hit 5-of-8 free throws in the final moments while Huisel went 3-for-4.

Busse ended up with 10 points on the night.

"It just seemed like we weren't playing hard at first," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "But we were there at the end and we had a shot."

The Eagles could have used a bit more John Androus.

But the senior guard fouled out on a disputed charge call with 2:32 left to play. Androus finished with a game-high 22 points and was the only Lakes player to reach double-figures.

"Our defense with the pressure forced (Carmel) into some turnovers and that got us back in the game," Androus said. "I'm a little disappointed I couldn't be in there (at the end), but it happens."