Zion-Benton drops Libertyville
Like two heavyweight boxers, Libertyville and Zion-Benton cautiously played their way through the first three quarters of their North Suburban Conference Lake Division battle in Zion on Saturday night.
The sparring continued until the fourth quarter, when both teams stopped the getting-to-know-you phase and proceeded to pick up the pace and the intensity.
“It was really a feeling-out process throughout,” Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. “Neither team really pressed. Neither team really pressed the issue until the last quarter.”
The tempo picked up dramatically to start the fourth quarter as the teams were tied five times and traded the lead twice. But in the end, Zion sewed up the 56-49 win at the free throw line. In the final two minutes, Zion nailed 7 of 8 free throws to pull away.
“Both teams played hard,” said Libertyville senior Ryan Barth. “(Zion) just executed better down the stretch than we did.”
Barth was a big reason Libertyville (9-10, 3-6) was able to come back and eventually take the lead. At one point in the fourth quarter, Barth scored 6 of his game-best 18 points. During the spurt he had a steal and running layup that gave the Wildcats their last lead at 49-47 with 2:13 to play.
“This is really the first time that Ryan has really shown that extra spurt down the stretch since his injury,” Bogumil said. “He really took over when we needed it at the end.”
Barth’s burst put the Cats ahead, but soon thereafter, Barth fouled out and the Wildcats’ offense came to a screeching halt.
Zion (17-6, 6-3) took the lead for good on a putback by Malik Yarbrough with 1:16 to play, then hit free throws to lock up the contest.
Yarbrough led the Zee-Bees with 16 points. Owen Worthington chipped in with 12 points and 12 boards, and Dondre Osborne chipped in with 11.
Libertyville fell behind by as many as 6 in the final quarter, but a nice spurt of 11-4 over 2 minutes gave the Wildcats their only lead of the fourth quarter.
“I think the key for us tonight was to breakdown Zion and be patient,” Bogumil said. “I have no problem with our effort tonight; we just didn’t finish like we need to against a good Zion team.”
The teams traded leads 16 times in the contest, including 6 times in the second half.