Trophy sure feels nice to Lake Zurich
Having collected his 1,000th career point earlier in the week and then the tournament MVP award Saturday night, Lake Zurich senior Mike Travlos offered up the championship trophy to coach Billy Pitcher.
"No, you guys keep it. Thanks," Pitcher said to Travlos. "It's nice to feel it, though."
Lake Zurich's shooters were "feeling it" against Urban Prep West in what amounted to the championship game of Grant's inaugural tournament. The Bears won 77-67, as they sank 12 3-pointers - all by Travlos, Nick Meyer and Jack O'Neill. Still, the Bears had their hands full, so to speak, in capturing their first tournament title in Pitcher's five seasons.
"This tournament ended up being a lot harder than what we expected," Pitcher said after his Bears finished 5-0. "We played two teams (Urban Prep West and North Lawndale) out of the top division (Red-West) of the CPS. Waukegan and North Chicago are tough. They were pressing us all game long. Grant battled. I mean, it was a tough tournament. There were no cupcakes, at all."
Travlos, O'Neill, Will McClaughry and Meyer accounted for all but 2 of Lake Zurich's points, as Pitcher used only two players off his bench. Travlos led all scorers with 23 points (three 3-pointers), O'Neill finished with 19 (four 3s), all-tourney pick McClaughry added 18 points and 9 rebounds, and Meyer tallied his 15 points on five treys.
"Our drive-and-kick game this year is pretty strong," O'Neill said. "We got a lot of guys that can drive effectively and kick it out for a 3."
One of those guys is Travlos, who hoisted the jumbo-sized championship trophy after the game and shared it with his teammates. Winning the "big ol' trophy," as he called it, was the highlight of his special week.
"We worked our butts off," Travlos said. "We were really clicking the last couple of games. Urban Prep and North Lawndale are good squads, and we played really well."
The Bears needed to win the game to capture the championship. Hitting 7 of 14 shots, including four 3s, in the opening quarter suggested they were not feeling pressure.
"You're always nervous before a big game like this," McClaughry said. "But I think we had confidence because we've been playing teams like (Urban Prep West) the entire week. We were ready. We knew we could beat them if we played well."
Urban Prep West (3-2) - which got 21 points from Willie Walton and 18 from Jaquan Johnson - led 10-6 four minutes into the game. But Lake Zurich closed the quarter with a 14-4 run, as McClaughry took a pass from Nick McCoy and flipped in a shot to beat the buzzer. The Lions were within 24-23 midway through the second quarter when O'Neill, Travlos and Meyer hit consecutive 3-pointers to make it a 10-point game.
On the strength of nine 3s, the Bears were up 41-30 at halftime.
Urban Prep West closed within three points on two occasions in the third quarter. But Travlos went high off the glass to make it 53-48 and McClaughry's 2 free throws had the Bears up 55-48 entering the fourth.
Lake Zurich then started the final quarter with a 10-2 run, which included O'Neill's three-point play, and the lead never dipped below double digits after that.
"We've got five shooters on the floor," said Pitcher, whose Bears also got 6 rebounds and 2 points from reserve Tim Spears. "Everybody can stick the 3, so it makes them hard to guard. (Urban Prep West) did a good job. They were switching a lot of their stuff, so then they took that away, but we were able to adjust and get the ball into Will."