Lake Forest stops Grant’s run
Grant was hoping its signature man-to-man pressure defense and the chip on its shoulder from being ranked no higher than 12th in the Barrington sectional would combine to give it the edge it needed to beat No. 5 Lake Forest on Wednesday night in the Palatine regional.
Didn’t work out that way for the Bulldogs, and you can blame Lake Forest.
The Bulldogs finished up a 20-8 campaign in a 51-43 loss in the Class 4A regional semifinals and really never found their rhythm on either end of the court against the taller, deeper Scouts (18-11). Lake Forest will meet Fremd on Friday night for the regional title.
Boasting a starting lineup featuring 6-foot-9 Creighton Titus and 6-7 freshman Evan Boudreaux — and then coming off the bench with 6-8 junior Sam Downey and 6-3 guards Ben Simpson and Carter Bass — Lake Forest causes matchup problems for most teams. Their bench alone put up 17 points to Grant’s 6 and Bass’ putback and 3-pointer at the tail end of the first quarter gave Lake Forest the lead for good.
From there, Lake Forest outrebounded the Bulldogs 31-19, blocked 3 shots and altered or just plain denied so many others with their length (Grant was 17-of-43 from the floor) that they would slowly pull away.
Usual hot shooter Ilya Kadushin (9 points) was held scoreless in the second half as Lake Forest’s Thomas Durrett (13 points) clamped down on him. Jared Helmech and Sean Wells (11 apiece) couldn’t quite pick up enough of the slack as the Scouts’ superiority around the basket enabled them to pull away.
“They’re a good team,” Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala said of the Bulldogs. “We controlled the defensive boards.”
“We gave up some offensive rebounds,” said Grant coach Wayne Bosworth, whose club was only the sixth in school history to win 20 games.
Lake Forest either threw the ball over the top of Grant’s pressure defense or guards John Hayes, Luke Streppa, Carter Bass, John Hayes and George Quall combined to nullify it and feed Durrett, Boudreaux and Downey inside.
Looking ahead to the regional title game though, “Fremd’s well coached, very disciplined,” said LaScala. “They got us in this game last year.”
Grant can only wish it could say the same this year.