Round 2 goes to North Chicago
North Chicago's boys basketball team saw its 43-game division game winning streak slip away in a loss at Lakes earlier in the year.
The Warhawks got a measure of revenge by blasting the visiting Eagles 86-48 in a North Suburban Prairie Division game Friday night.
Lakes (8-16, 6-5) had beaten North Chicago 68-60 in the first meeting on Jan. 7.
"In the first game, we weren't focused and Lakes played a great game up there," Warhawks coach Gerald Coleman said. "North Chicago is just coming around like we are supposed to, and we are peaking at the right time with our pressure defense."
North Chicago (11-10, 9-1) was led by guards Maurice Gordon and Aaron Simpson. Gordon led all scorers with 21 points while teammate Simpson finished with a double-double 19 points and 10 assists.
"Simpson is very unselfish," Coleman said. "He scores a lot of points for us, but he would rather get the assists and it doesn't bother him when Gordon steps up and does the scoring.
"Gordon and Simpson have been playing together for three years, " Coleman said. "In the past, Simpson was the man to go to, and Gordon gave Simpson the ball. But with this team I have this year, when Gordon is scoring 16 points or more and Simpson is scoring 16 or 18 points, we are very tough to beat."
Jaylin Linson finished with 15 points.
"We came out with more intensity tonight than we did the first time we played them," said Simpson, who also had 5 steals. "When we are playing together, nobody can stop us because we're so fast."
North Chicago and Lakes battled back and forth as North Chicago led 21-17 at the end of the first quarter.
But North Chicago's Daryle Pearson started the second quarter with a 10-foot jump shot to start a 12-0 run as the Warhawks led 45-29 at halfime.
Sophomore Direll Clark scored 8 points in the first half and finished led the Eagles with 15 points.
"We played harder in the first game than we did (Friday)," Clark said. "In the second half, (North Chicago) was playing more aggressive 'D' than we were, and they were taking it to the rim."
Parker Blain and Justin Bergeron finished with 9 points each for Lakes.
"(North Chicago) was pretty focused tonight," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "They wanted to get some revenge tonight and were playing at an unbelievable energy level. We did match them in the first quarter. But in the second, there were times when we took a step back and that's when we really got hurt."