Lake Zurich handles Jacobs
Skarbs scattered shortly after sunrise Saturday.
With Kyle Skarb and his Northern Illinois football teammates playing an early game at Ball State, his parents road-tripped to Muncie, Ind., while back home Karlissa Skarb zipped back early in the morning to Dundee-Crown, where she and her Lake Zurich basketball teammates had just played Friday night.
The Bears perked up in the second half and pulled out a 47-30 win over Jacobs in each team's second game of the tournament.
Karlissa Skarb even had family in the stands her oldest brother, Christopher.
“He surprised me,” she said, smiling.
The morning game for Lake Zurich was by design, as its football team was playing St. Rita Saturday night in a Class 7A state semifinal.
“We asked for the 10 a.m. game,” Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said. “Knowing last year that we returned most of our football players, I thought there was a fairly good chance (the football team would be playing Saturday).”
Jacobs junior Lauren Grady led all scorers with 13 points, including a 3-pointer off an inbounds play to end the third quarter and get the Eagles (0-3) within 34-24.
A transfer from Marian Central, Grady had just 6 points in Jacobs' first two games. She scored nine in the third, sinking 4 of 5 shots.
“We're trying to get her a little more into it,” Golden Eagles coach Keith Chuipek said. “She's the sweetest girl in the world. I told her, ‘You can still be a sweet girl, but you still got to be a little tough out on the court.' She's going to be a fine player for us.”
The football team wasn't Lake Zurich's only undefeated team in November going into Saturday.
Bennett's squad improved to 3-0 (2-0 at D-C), as it got balanced scoring for the third game in a row. Katherine Anderson led Lake Zurich with 10 points, including a 3-pointer. Cathryne Spear and Dori Darras (6 rebounds) each had 8 points, while Skarb scored seven and added 3 steals.
The Bears might not have stars, but they do have shooters.
“We don't have anyone to really play post or anyone tall, but we're a good shooting team,” Skarb said. “I think we all can contribute.”
That's the way the Bears have to play.
“We're still finding ourselves,” Bennett said. “We're trying to figure out what style is going to work for us and how we want to play. We have a lot of interchangeable parts. We're just trying to put them in the right places.”
A constant is the way the Bears play defense. They've held their three opponents Deerfield, Crystal Lake South and Jacobs to 30, 34 and 30 points, respectively.
“Lake Zurich defense isn't going to change,” Bennett said.
Bennett has started Anderson, Skarb, Darras, Spear and Maisie Cox in each game.
“We've had some good senior leadership out of all five of our seniors,” Bennett said of Skarb, Elizabeth Manella, Tabbetha Bohac, Kelsey Dreiling and Kelley Hirt. “The starters have done their job, and Renee Wojcik, Stephanie Schmid and Kelsey Dreiling (coming) off the bench have done very well.”
Jacobs, which has scored just 93 points in three games, trailed 21-11 at halftime, after getting only a bucket from Jessica Tennant (8 points) in the second quarter.
“Still a little choppy, a little rough,” Chuipek said. “I'm just asking them to make improvements every time. It seems like we're having a hard time getting our offense going because of our inexperience at point guard. We expected that.”