Brown steps it up for Lakes
A good teammate and reliable reserve, Jacob Brown has spent much of his basketball career at Lakes waiting in the wings.
He showed on Thursday that maybe he should step to the front of the line more often.
The senior point guard, helping to fill the void left by three key players who are out on suspension, played a key role in helping the Eagles turn a nip-and-tuck first half against visiting Wauconda into a breezy 66-50 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division victory.
Down by a point at halftime (24-23), Lakes got 2 momentum-shifting third-quarter 3-pointers from Brown to seize control. By the start of the fourth quarter, the Eagles boasted an 8-point advantage and just kept adding to it.
Brown, who once again came off the bench but wound up playing some of the most minutes of his career, finished with a career-high 12 points. He was one of four Lakes players in double-figures.
“It took a while for me to get here, but it’s my time now,” Brown said with a big smile. “It’s going out and just playing. My shots were going in. That’s always a good thing.
“We had a good team game today, too. They (Wauconda) were hitting some big shots in the first half, but we played better defense in the second half. We’ve also got a lot of depth and we can put different people in at any time. That’s the strength of this team. I also think it says a lot about our team that we’ve been able to fight through adversity and still win games.”
The Eagles, who improve to 12-7 overall and 6-1 in the Prairie, are playing their second straight game without starters Direll Clark and Jay-Jay Elvir and key reserve Andrew Spencer, all of whom are out on three-game suspensions for violations of team policy.
Lakes lost on Saturday at Warren without Clark, Elvir and Spencer, but could afford it since it was a crossover game. The Eagles needed a victory against Wauconda in order keep pace with undefeated North Chicago in the Prairie Division standings.
“Wauconda has been playing well and they have some pretty good shooters, so it’s one of those games where you never really feel comfortable until you get a nice cushion,” Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. “This was an important game for us because it keeps us in second place behind North Chicago, and we play them again, so hopefully when we get to that game, it can mean something.
“We talked about it when all the suspensions came down that this was a chance for some of the other guys on the team to take advantage of some playing time at a key time for us and some of them did tonight for sure. A guy like Jake (Brown) works so hard in practice and is such a great teammate. It’s good to see it pay off for him.”
The Eagles also got nice paydays from forward Justin Bergeron (team-high 13 points), guard Tanner Blain (12 points) and center Justin Schneider (12 points). Sophomore guard TJ Edwards, who was recently promoted from the sophomore team to help during the suspension period added 9 points.
It was all a bit too much for Wauconda to keep up with. The Bulldogs were playing a game for the second day in a row. A hard-fought game against Carmel on Wednesday night left the Bulldogs with heavy legs as the second half wore on.
“We just kind of ran out of gas,” said Wauconda senior guard Kyle Ryan, who still managed to pour in 18 points. “We got tired and lost energy and focus and they (Lakes) just kind of took over from there.
“We’ll be OK. This is the best team Wauconda has had in five years. We’re not quite where we should be yet and we still have to work on some things, but this is a big step up for us.”
The Bulldogs, who got a game-high 19 points from junior guard Austin Swenson, fall to 9-11 overall and 2-5 in the Prairie Division. They were playing without starting forward Matt Mead, who was out sick.
“When we ran out of steam in the fourth quarter, things just unraveled quickly for us,” Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager said. “We were hoping to come in here and sneak one out with (Lakes) being down some guys. But they’re a good, solid team, they’re very disciplined and very well-coached.”