Big win for Lake Zurich over Stevenson
Call it poetic justice.
Last year, the Lake Zurich boys basketball team suffered through one close loss after another. In fact, the Bears lost seven games by a total of 21 points.
Now, the high-top is on the other foot.
"What goes around comes around, I guess," Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said. "We got all the close losses last year. This year, we've gotten all the close wins.
"We've had three overtime games that we've won. I'd say all together there have been seven close wins for us."
On Saturday, the Bears got the seventh of their razor-sharp victories and it might just be the most important.
Lake Zurich earned an ever-important North Suburban Conference Lake Division win by defeating perennial power Stevenson 57-55.
The host Bears, who were playing in their old gym for a "Turn Back the Clock" event that honored former players from the program, iced it in the final moments when senior forward Mirko Grcic drained 2 free throws with 5 seconds left.
Grcic's teammates cleared out one side of the floor for him and let him go to work with time winding down. He eventually drove hard to the basket and was fouled. He hit 5 of 8 free throws on the night.
LZ improves to 11-8 overall and 2-3 in the Lake while Stevenson drops to 10-4 overall and 3-2 in the Lake. The Patriots have lost their last three games.
"I had a rough stretch (of free throw shooting) in Pekin (over the holidays)," said Grcic, who finished with a game-high 16 points. "But tonight I was just thinking that I had to make those free throws. Home crowd - nothing's going to stop me from making these free throws.
"We're all excited. We feel like by beating a team like Stevenson we can be one of the top teams in the conference."
The Bears certainly showed the savvy of a champion.
They were able to go up by as many as 8 points in a game that was so methodical at times that such a lead seemed like 18 points. But even as Stevenson cut into that lead, and eventually tied the game early in the fourth quarter, the Bears didn't crumble.
"We were able to match their energy and intensity tonight," Pitcher said of Stevenson, which got a team-high 14 points from freshman point guard Jalen Brunson. "We were able to get in the lane and be aggressive and that helped us out a lot, too. That's why we got to the foul line.
"Having a guy like Mirko makes a big difference. We just wanted to clear it out for him and let him make a play."
Lake Zurich also got some big plays from freshman sharpshooter Mike Travelos, a recent call-up who saw his first varsity action in Pekin over the holidays. He scored 11 points, including a 3-pointer, to tie junior guard Ryan Roach (11 points) for the second-highest point total on the team.
"I was very nervous going in," Travelos said. "But once I hit my first shot, I just got into the game and kept going. It was so great. I'm just in awe."
The Patriots aren't very much in awe of their performances in recent days.
They've lost three straight games, including two Lake Division games. They entered the Lake Zurich game having lost to Lake Forest the night before.
"The past two nights, it seems like the other team wanted it more, like they played with more heart," said Stevenson senior guard Mike Fleming, who finished with 11 points. Junior guard Danny Nowak also scored 11 points for the Patriots.
"We can't be doing this against teams we're capable of beating," Fleming said. "We got off to a good start this season and maybe that's hurt us a little bit because I think we probably got a little high on ourselves and that's disappointing."
Equally disappointing to the Patriots was that they didn't shoot well in key stretches against Lake Zurich and they also turned the ball over a few times in the waning moments.
"Lake Zurich did a good job defensively," Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. "They forced us to take some shots that we didn't want to and we also made some bad passes that led to turnovers. We were tentative."