An egg-cellent performance from Lakes
Brian Phelan can consider the unwrapped goose egg a gift from his Lakes girls basketball players.
Merry Christmas, Coach.
“He said his ultimate goal was to get a goose egg,” junior forward Julia Deferville said. “He said today we should try to do it. So we did it for him.”
The goose egg Phelan coveted was not literate. Rather, he wanted one quarter of basketball in which his Eagles did not allow a single point. Lakes secured it in a 37-25 win over Belvidere in the Eagles' second and final game Saturday in the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic at Richmond-Burton.
“Selfishly, I have always wanted to pitch a goose egg once in my career,” Phelan said with a smile. “I finally got one. So the girls were very excited at halftime.”
The Eagles were pumped up because after spotting Belvidere a 17-12 lead after one quarter, they blanked the Bucs in the second. Lakes used a 2-3 zone to outscore Belvidere 13-0 and take a 25-17 lead into halftime.
“The girls just started talking on defense,” Phelan said after his Eagles (7-4, 3-0 tournament) advanced to the championship bracket at McHenry. Lakes will play at 11 a.m. Monday. The tourney wraps up Tuesday.
Lakes nearly picked up a second goose egg after halftime. They outscored Belvidere 7-2 in the third quarter, as the Bucs scored their only points on 2 free throws by Neve Yerk (game-high 13 points) with 2:45 left. Yerk's tosses stopped a 20-0 run by Lakes, which got a jumper from Savannah Sikora to take a 32-19 advantage into the fourth.
For the Eagles, who trailed 17-10 in the final minute of the opening quarter, their comeback was all about communication. That's been important during their tournament winning streak, too.
“Working as a team is great,” Deferville said. “Out on the floor, we talk a lot. On the bench, people talk. At halftime, we talk in the locker room about what we can do better.”
The 6-foot-1 Deferville scored a season-high 12 points to lead the Eagles offensively. Guard Ellie Haviland added 9 points, including a 3-pointer. Lakes allowed just 8 points after halftime in winning for the sixth time in its last seven games.
“It was a good defensive effort,” Phelan said. “We moved the ball well on offense. We just got to make shots.”
Lakes 31, Marian Central 24: At Richmond-Burton, in their first game of the day, the Eagles squandered a 16-5 lead in the second quarter but scored the final 7 points to pull out the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic game.
Ellie Haviland's jumper snapped a 24-24 tie midway through the fourth. The senior guard scored 4 of her game-high 14 points in the final quarter. Haviland and Sarah Zellmann (6 points) each sank a pair of 3-pointers, as the Eagles improved to 6-4 and 2-0 in the tournament.