Only Lakes earns applause

The clapping was loud and nonstop.

But apparently, it fell upon deaf ears.

The students in the Antioch cheering section started the third quarter of Monday's game between their Sequoits and archrival Lakes by clapping furiously. It soon become obvious that they intended to clap until Antioch scored its first points of the second half.

Who knew that those faithful Sequoit supporters would be clapping, and clapping, and clapping, and clapping -

Four minutes into the third quarter and not a single point better than they were at halftime, the Sequoits were losing clappers left and right. Only a few remained.

The stragglers would be clapping and clapping and clapping some more until the 3:09 mark of the third quarter. But even then, Antioch didn't score a field goal. William Waschow gave them their first points of the second half on mere free throws.

In fact, Lakes clamped down so hard on defense that Antioch went the entire third quarter without a field goal. The Sequoits didn't manage to get one of those until nearly two minutes into the fourth quarter.

By then, Lakes was up by 14 points and was coasting swiftly downhill en route to a 59-41 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division victory.

The win moves Lakes, which hosted the game but wore its blue road jerseys because Antioch was technically the home team, to 12-17 overall and to 8-4 in the division, good for a tie with Vernon Hills for second place.

Antioch, which would have hosted the game had its gym not still been under repair after a flood damaged the floor earlier this season, drops to 9-18 overall and 5-7 in the Prairie.

"We're at home and we're wearing blue, that was (weird), but to me, it doesn't matter who's wearing what color, it just matters who plays the hardest and who plays the best game," said Lakes senior guard Tyler Swindle, who poured in a game-high 18 points. "Defensively in first half we weren't playing very hard defense on them, but in the second half, we got up in their faces and we played more aggressively. We went into a zone and that threw them off a little bit, too."

The Sequoits were so out of sorts that they actually forgot what offense they were supposed to be running.

"Our guys don't do what we ask them to do," Antioch coach Mike Skinner said. "They think they can do it their way and that it will work and it doesn't work. They were supposed to be running our offense and they didn't."

It didn't start out that way.

The Sequoits looked in sync early on. They traded baskets with Lakes in the first quarter and actually went up 25-22 early in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Kyle Melton, who scored a team-high 11 points for Antioch.

But behind two buckets by John Androus, who pumped in all 15 of his points before halftime, Lakes closed the second quarter with a 10-1 run. That was the beginning of the end for Antioch.

The Sequoits' 0-for-6 shooting percentage in the third quarter was only compounded by the fact that Lakes forced them into 5 turnovers. On top of that, Antioch was trying to play on without Melton, who sat much of the third quarter in foul trouble.

Meanwhile, the Eagles outscored Antioch 12-4, primarily on the back of Swindle, who scored 7 points in the quarter.

Lakes put away the game thanks to some strong fourth quarter post moves by sophomore Deondre Hudson, who was fed one pretty pass after another by Androus.

Hudson finished with 8 points.

"It was a great atmosphere, a rivalry game and another good win for us," said Lakes coach Brian Phelan, whose team has won three games in a row. "I was really pleased with our defense in the second half."