Warren clinches NSC Lake crown by surviving Barth’s heroics
When Libertyville and Warren last met on December the 17th, Wildcats senior guard Ryan Barth was still out nursing a knee injury.
Warren senior Jeremiah Jackson remembered the 59-49 Warren win well, but didn’t remember Barth.
“I didn’t remember him at all,” Jackson said. “I know he wasn’t there when we played last time.”
Without question, Jackson and the rest of the Blue Devils will surely never forget Barth after Friday’s North Suburban Lake division contest at Libertyville.
Barth was sensational — and Ellis Matthews nearly provided remarkable fourth-quarter heroics,
Matthews even had the ball with one final chance to win it for the Wildcats, but his running jumper was partially blocked as time expired to help Warren escape with a 55-54 victory.
The win gaves the Devils the NSC Lake Division crown and a spot in the NSC title game at the end of the season. Warren has won five straight.
Libertyville lost for the seventh time in the last nine games and fell to 9-11, 3-7.
“We were very fortunate to come out of here with a win tonight,” said Warren coach Chuck Ramsey. “They outplayed and outhustled us. They were more aggressive than us and really outworked us tonight.”
The Devils simply could not stop Barth. After missing his first 4 shots, Barth nailed 13 of the next 16 shots he took and finished with a game-best 28 points.
“I felt good before the game tonight,” Barth said. “My knee felt as good as it has since I have been back and I just was in a good rhythm.”
Warren (19-3, 9-0) looked like it was ready to finally pull away from the Wildcats midway through the third quarter. An 8-2 spurt keyed by a pair of buckets from co-leading scorer Brandon Ferguson lifted the visitors to their biggest lead of the night at 42-31 with 1:18 to go. Jackson tied Ferguson for team-best honors with 12 points.
The Wildcats then rode the hot hand of Barth. He scored a pair of buckets to end the period, then dished out a pair of assists to Matthews to open the final quarter — and just like that a 10-2 burst had the Cats within 44-41 with 6:10 to go.
“I wish we would have won because we really played our butts off,” Barth said. “Warren is a great team and we played right there with them the whole way.”
The Blue Devils again looked like they were about to ice it before Matthews (12 points) caught fire at the end. The junior sharp-shooter buried a pair of long 3-pointers in the final 2:16 to pull Libertyville within 55-54 with 6.9 seconds left.
On the final play of the night, Matthews’ shot was tipped away by multiple Warren defenders and the Devils had survived a terrific performance by Libertyville.
“We played hard and gave it everything we had,” said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil. “We just came up a little bit short, but there are still plenty of positives to take from this.”