Lake Zurich falls in OT
It was an absolutely devastating end to the season for the Lake Zurich boys basketball team Monday night at the Fremd Class 4A regional.
The No. 20-seeded Bears held a 45-42 lead over No. 13 Lake Forest with seven seconds to play — but the Scouts scored the tying 3-point basket on somewhat of a fluke play with one second remaining.
From there, Lake Forest (12-15) rolled past shell-shocked Lake Zurich (7-20) in overtime as the Scouts captured a 60-49 victory to advance to the semifinals Tuesday night against No. 4 Zion-Benton.
Bears sophomore Ryan Roach had hit 1 of 2 free throws for a 45-42 lead with 9.6 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
The Scouts took timeout with seven seconds left. A 3-point attempt was an air ball by senior Alex Schwartz from the right of the top of the key.
But the Scouts’ John Hayes grabbed the rebound and quickly found teammate Thomas Durrett open — and Durrett nailed the tying 3-pointer just before the buzzer sounded.
Schwartz (team-high 15 points) hit a 3-pointer to open overtime as the Scouts scored the first 11 points of the extra session to take a commanding 56-45 advantage.
“It doesn’t get any tougher than this and I just feel so bad for our seniors,” said Bears coach Billy Pitcher. “I take 100 percent of the blame. We should have fouled and made them shoot free throws, but we decided to try to get the stop.”
The score was 17-17 at intermission. The Scouts began to pull away as a 3-pointer by Jack Ford game them their biggest lead at 34-26 with 6:50 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Bears rallied, and a 3-pointer by senior Colin Rathe capped a 10-3 run that the gap to 37-36 with 4:13 to play.
Junior Mirko Grcic (game-high 22 points) hit a free throw and an inside hoop assisted by senior Mike Boyd for a 41-38 lead with 2:24 to go.
Roach (12 points) hit 2 free throws for a 43-40 lead before Boyd hit 1 of 2 free throws for a 44-40 edge with 16.2 seconds left.
Hayes bolted down the middle of the court and cut the gap to 44-42 with 10.2 seconds to go before Roach (5-for-6 free throws) was fouled with 9.6 left.
“Schwartz missed the 3-pointer and I thought we won the game and Rathe had done a great job on 24 (Durrett) the whole game,” Pitcher said. “I’m just so proud of our guys, the seniors worked very hard. We had 7 losses by a total of 20 points.
“It’s a real tough one to swallow. I just have such a pit in my stomach for the seniors.”
Carter Bass joined Schwartz in double figures with 14 points as did Hayes and Ford with 11 points each. Durrett added 8 points, while Boyd chipped in 7 points.
“It was a huge shot by Thomas (Durrett) and a great kick-out by John (Hayes),- he’s a heads-up player,” said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala. “What we talked about before overtime was to quit celebrating and let’s celebrate after four minutes (of overtime).”