Warren gets it, together

Most people don't like meetings.

But sometimes, they are necessary - and can actually be productive.

The Warren boys basketball team needed a team meeting this week. A loss to Stevenson on Tuesday that snapped the Blue Devils' 18-game North Suburban Conference Lake Division winning streak called into question all kinds of issues. Some basketball, some not.

"We had this team talk after the Stevenson loss," Warren point guard Jameris Smith said. "It just felt like we all weren't on the same page. We all talked about things, the coaches talked about stuff. We went over our roles again. Like, my role is to run the team and be a defensive stopper."

For Smith, the meeting was productive indeed.

The message about "know your role" rang loud and clear for him as he played a big role in getting the defending Class 4A state runner-up Blue Devils back on track Friday night.

Smith was a defensive menace from tip to final horn as he put the tightest of clamps on Mundelein scoring machine Robert Knar, normally good for at least 20-plus points per game.

With Knar limited to just 11 points on an atypical 4-of-12 shooting, visiting Warren rolled to a 61-45 North Suburban Lake Division victory over Mundelein.

The Blue Devils, who were playing without starters Darius Paul and Roman Schultz, held out due to various undisclosed issues at school, also used a significant size advantage to help their cause. Leading the way in scoring was 6-foot-9 center Nathan Boothe. He finished with a game-high 19 points and was one of four Warren players in double-figures.

The Blue Devils (7-1, 1-1 Lake) also got 12 points out of 6-foot-4 forward Mitch Munda and 11 points from 6-foot-4 guard JoVaughn Gaines. Meanwhile, Smith, who exerted all kinds of energy chasing Knar and fighting through screen after screen to keep up, somehow found the energy to also score 11 points.

"The Stevenson game - it was a night of frustration. We shot so poorly," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "So to come over here and play with some spunk and spirit, I'm real proud of our kids. There were a lot of extra effort plays that they made. I thought they stepped up and did a great job and played really well tonight."

Warren took firm control early in the third quarter. Up 27-19 at halftime, the Blue Devils opened with an 11-3 run to go up 16 points (38-22) with about 3 minutes left in the quarter.

Boothe scored on a strong post move in the paint during that flurry and then he scored 4 of his 6 fourth quarter points in an 8-0 Warren run that began the fourth quarter and put the game out of reach for good.

"We wanted to work to get it inside to take advantage because we're bigger," said Boothe, who also pulled down 13 rebounds and jammed a putback home with a big dunk. "We were able to get it in even around the doubles. We just worked hard. We should have never lost that Stevenson game. It was a bit of a wake-up call. Now we know how hard we have to play every night."

As point guard and leader of the team, Smith wanted to set that tone early.

Not only was he working hard on defense, and finding ways to score, he also was finding his teammates. Smith finished with 6 assists. And on top of that, he didn't turn the ball over once.

"When your point guard has that kind of ratio, plus the way he played defense, and to throw in 11 points, that's quite a night," Ramsey said. "Jameris played great at both ends with tremendous effort and energy. He played a great game. You couldn't ask for much more."

Unless you were Knar. He could have used a little more room to get his shot off. But Smith stayed with him step-for-step.

"He was suffocating and he gets you tired," Robert Knar said of Smith. "It was good defense. That's going to happen a lot more and I guess I'm just going to have to learn to deal with it and move a lot more without the ball and read screens better. I have to get past this."

Meanwhile, the Mustangs have to get past the disappointment of their first loss. They are now 7-1 on the season (2-1 Lake).

"Us scoring 19 points in a half, we can't do that," said Mundelein coach Dick Knar, whose normally high-scoring, up-tempo team got a team-high 13 points out of forward Sean O'Brien. But O'Brien and Robert Knar were the only Mustangs in double-figures. "They (the Blue Devils) get all the credit. We played bad, but they made us play bad."