Tournament time here again for Lakes, Antioch

No, Santa Claus isn't coming back to town this weekend, but some Lake County basketball teams are leaving town as if it were the holiday tournament season again.

Lakes and Antioch are both participating in Martin Luther King Day tournaments that require a bit more gas in the bus than your typical road trip.

Lakes will be playing in Galesburg, which is south of Moline in western Illinois while Antioch will be in Rockton, just north of Rockford. It is the first time for each team in their respective tournaments.

"The biggest thing that you look forward to from a weekend like this is the shear amount of time we get to spend together," said Lakes coach Brian Phelan, who heard about the tournament and was in luck when he called to see if there was an opening. "You eat together, you hang out together, you're in the hotel together playing video games and swimming in the pool, and you have a lot of time together to talk basketball. You're making some nice connections."

Antioch coach Mike Skinner likes hooking up with some new competition. Playing teams from outside the area is a nice break from the grind of North Suburban Conference play.

"We have an unbelievable schedule in front of us," said Skinner, who made some connections with tournament organizers during past summer leagues that his team has played in. "It's nice to play different teams and these teams that we're going to play are all pretty good. The teams we're playing out at this tournament all have at least one Division I-caliber player on them.

"This is the toughest stretch of schedule we've had since I've been coaching at Antioch, but I like that. It will help us get ready for the next phase of the season and the (state) tournament."

Antioch will be going up against teams such as Neuqua Valley, DeKalb and Sterling. Lakes is guaranteed four games and will take on Galesburg, Minooka, East Moline United and Marian Catholic. The Eagles already played a fifth tiebreaker game earlier in the season against Maine South.

"You're kind of going into the unknown a little bit, but that's kind of fun," Phelan said. "We're just going to worry about us and try to rely on the basics."

Revolving rotation: With four games in three days, legs will eventually get heavy and fatigue will set in.

That's why Lakes coach Brian Phelan is planning on fully unleashing his already deep rotation at the Martin Luther King Day tournament in Galesburg.

The Eagles (6-11) use seven to eight players consistently, but Phelan foresees that number going up significantly as the reality of their hectic schedule in Galesburg sets in.

"We have a pretty deep bench and I think it's going to be exciting to get those guys some time," Phelan said. "We'll really be able to see what they can do."

Phelan is expecting to see plenty from reserves Jacob Carey, Parker Blain and sophomore Deondre Hudson, all of whom have had their moments this season but could probably really come out of their shell with longer stretches of playing time.

"Jacob has played really well in JV games and Deondre is playing quite a lot (in varsity games)," Phelan said. "But it's getting as many minutes as possible that really gets that confidence up and raises your basketball IQ."

Join the club: Lakes' 67-56 victory over Round Lake on Tuesday certainly had a sweet ending, but its beginning was nice as well.

Prior to the game, senior guard John Androus was recognized for having scored his 1,000th career point against North Chicago two games prior.

Androus dropped 32 points (and grabbed 19 points) on the Prairie Division-leading Warhawks. He is now just 15 points away from third place on Lakes' all-time career list.

Androus, who is averaging about 18 points a game, needs to average about 16 points a game the rest of the season in order to have a chance at leaving the program as its all-time leading scorer. Sean Hertz currently holds that title with 1,250 points.

"We gave John a commemorative ball before the Round Lake game and brought his parents out and everything," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "It was a nice moment. John has meant a lot to our program. He's started every game (since his sophomore year). He's a great kid."

Cats are early birds: Sometimes rest can be overrated.

While having an entire day of downtime seems like it would do wonders for athletes preparing for a big game at night, Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil is in the camp that says too much downtime can make players sluggish.

That's why he's become an advocate of moving Saturday games up.

When Libertyville hosts Stevenson on Saturday, tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. instead of the normal 7:30 p.m. It's not a big change, but it's a step towards Bogumil's desire to go even earlier for Saturday games.

He says the Wildcats have played some early afternoon Saturday games in recent years and have enjoyed them.

"There is so much sitting around on Saturdays," Bogumil said. "The kids aren't in school and you just spend the day waiting and trying to find things for them to do."

Last season, Libertyville played three afternoon games and have three on the schedule this year, including Senior "Night," make that "Day" in February.

"One thing we've found is that our afternoon games have actually been very well-attended, almost better attended than the Saturday night games," Bogumil said. "Saturdays are hard. People like to go out to eat and go somewhere, do something. By the time you go to a basketball game that starts at 7:30, so much of your night is gone. Playing games in the afternoon allows our fans and parents, even our players, to go out to eat after the game and still enjoy the evening."

Spreading the wealth: With a 36-point outburst against Notre Dame over the holidays, Libertyville senior forward Billy Meyer proved he can score with the best of them.

But over the long haul, the 9-5 Wildcats have been winning games with not one big scorer but many smaller ones.

Four players average nearly 10 points for Libertyville, with Meyer and Ryan Barth averaging 12 and 11 points respectively. Hobie Herberger and John Colao are both at about 9 points per game.

"In the past, we've been used to having that one big scorer, like (2006 grad) Matt Hogan," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "That was kind of nice because at the end of games, there was no doubt that we could get it to Matt and just get out of his way.

"We don't have that kind of player with this group, but we do have a really nice balance and that's nice, too. We can get the ball to a number of guys, whoever has the hot hand, so we don't have to rely on just one guy."

Zeroing in: At 7-9, Carmel is getting close to reaching its top goal of the season.

The program has struggled in recent years and the current batch of Corsairs has been determined from the get-go to get at least 10 wins.

"It's been a long time since that's happened," Carmel coach John Ryan said. "There hasn't even been a winning season here in 17 years. So we're starting with the goal of getting double-digit wins and it's neat that it's in sight at a point where we still have more than enough winnable games to get there."

If the Corsairs hit the mark, Ryan says they'll do so on the backs of seniors Jonathan Huisel and Patrick Cox, who have logged a lot of minutes over their careers and are desperate to stop the bleeding.

Huisel and Cox are averaging about 12 and 11 points, respectively.

"Those two are by far our most consistent players and I think a big reason is that they are determined to get the job done every night so that we can make sure we reach that goal," Ryan said. "This is their last shot and they want to feel like they contributed something during their time here. They're trying to make something really special of it."

Moving on up: Hopefully, Mike Fitzgibbons wasn't getting too comfortable on the bench.

The Carmel junior forward has spent the entire season coming off the bench, but that could change soon. He's playing so well that head coach John Ryan says he's on cusp of a spot in the starting lineup.

"He's still coming off the bench, but it's close," Ryan said. "Mike is really stepping up for us and giving us some really good minutes."

Fitzgibbons can contribute from either forward position and is especially productive on the boards and on defense.

"He's very aggressive and he's got a lot of quickness," Ryan said. "Mike brings a lot of energy to the floor. He's really good at running the floor and we get transition baskets when he's in there. But it's not just what he's doing during games, Mike is also playing really well in practice and that's gotten him more minutes, too."

Back in action: It's no secret that Grant missed sophomore forward Jerry Gaylor last month.

Gaylor went down with an ankle injury in the Bulldogs' victory over Vernon Hills on Dec. 12 and then missed the next six games. Grant went 2-4 over that stretch and is currently riding a six-game losing streak.

But the Bulldogs are ready for a rebound and are glad Gaylor will be along for the ride. He returned earlier this week in Grant's 44-40 loss to Antioch.

"Jerry's not quite his old self yet," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "He's not elevating like he used to and he's a step slow and a little out of shape. It's going to take him a little more time to get back into it."

Still, Gaylor managed 8 points and a career-high 10 rebounds against Antioch and then followed that up 24 hours later with 14 points and 6 boards against Lakes.

"It's great to have Jerry back," Bosworth said.

"He can do so many things. He can score, he's great on defense. Before he got hurt, he was averaging 3 blocks a game and really did a nice job of making teams think about going to the basket on us. He was a great presence in there.

"I think having him back is going to give all of our guys some confidence and I'm confident we'll start to bounce back."

Give me the Gaylor: Need a super tight tape job in the Grant training room?

Well, there's a name for it.

"It's called the 'Jerry Gaylor,'" Grant coach Wayne Bosworth laughed, referring to his star sophomore forward. "Jerry has sprained his ankle so many times now that he needs to be taped really tight. It's this special tape job, so they just call it the 'Jerry Gaylor.'"

Gaylor has missed six games already this season with a severely sprained left ankle. He missed nearly three-fourths of last season with the same injury.

"Actually, Jerry has injured his ankles every year since seventh grade," Bosworth said.

"It's been so hard for him because he wants to be out there playing. We're doing our best to really strengthen those ankles. He's seeing the trainer every day and doing all these different techniques with rubber bands and things like that. He's also wearing a brace, and he gets that tape job that won't let his ankle move anywhere."