Hardware milestone for Lakes
Lakes' girls basketball made some team history Tuesday.
By beating Wauconda 49-36 for third place in the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic at McHenry, the Eagles earned their first trophy.
Ellie Haviland scored 17 points and grabbed 5 rebounds for Lakes (8-5), which finished 4-1 in the tournament. Sarah Zellmann added 13 points and 7 rebounds for the Eagles. Natalie Iacopetti and Shannon Hurlbut chipped in 7 and 6 points, respectively.
Lakes outscored Wauconda (10-3, 3-2) 15-7 in the second quarter to take a 26-19 lead into halftime. The Eagles were up 37-28 after three.
"Very pleased with our assist-to-made-shot ratio today," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "The girls responded well after putting forth a good effort (Monday) against a good Johnsburg team. That said, today we played a well-coached and disciplined Wauconda Bulldogs team. They run good stuff and are playing good basketball. Very pleased that our girls absorbed the game plan in a short amount of time and executed it well. We are all moving in the right (direction)."
Dundee-Crown 51, Round Lake 37: At Richmond-Burton, the Panthers concluded the Northern Illinois Holiday Classic by losing their fourth game in a row.
Miyah Johnson led Round Lake (2-12, 1-4 tournament) with 12 points.
Grayslake North 42, Lake Zurich 40: At Mundelein, in a game of runs, the Knights hung on to advance to the semifinals of the tournament.
Grayslake North spotted Lake Zurich a 10-0 lead and trailed 21-10 at halftime. The Knights then scored the first 12 points of the second half and went into the fourth quarter up 29-26.
"We were down 11 at halftime and we said, 'We don't have score 11 points in one possession. We're just going to take it one possession at a time and chip away,' " Knights coach Rob Nicoletti said. "They really bought in. They did a fantastic job of getting stops and then executing on offense, and then doing it again and again."
Grayslake North freshman Savannah Gunther sank a 3-pointer with four minutes left in the fourth to extend the Knights' lead to 40-28. But Lake Zurich responded with a 10-0 run to get within two with 31 seconds to go.
After Grayslake North missed 2 free throws with four seconds left, Lake Zurich had one final chance after a timeout. The Bears inbounded the ball under their own basket but could not get off a shot in time.
"They made some really nice halftime adjustments," Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said of the Knights. "We didn't adjust. He went to a switching man, and we decided to not do what we've done against every other switching-man team. We played some individual ball, and that doesn't work."
Brandi Thibeaux scored 10 of her team-high 15 points in the second half for Grayslake North. Sidney Lovitsch added 12, including a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter. The 5-foot-10 Gunther scored 9 points in just her second varsity game. With the Knights short-handed during the tournament, Nicoletti called up Gunter and her sophomore sister, Abby Gunther.
"I'm really proud of her effort," Nicoletti said of Savannah Gunther. "Honestly, all nine girls that we had today gave a fantastic effort to not roll over after that first half."
Lake Zurich's Grace Kinsey had 17 points (9-of-11 foul shooting) and 13 rebounds in just 13 minutes. Abby Pirron had 6 of her 11 points in the fourth for the Bears.
Grayslake North plays Libertywville at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Lake Zurich takes on Grant at 3:30 p.m.
Mundelein 51, Nazareth 40: At Mundelein, Amy Richards led all scorers with a season-high 24 points, as the host Mustangs improved to 1-1 in their own tournament.
Richards shot 8 of 11 from the floor, including 2 of 4 from three-point range, and was 6 of 7 from the foul line.
Mundelein (4-10), which won for the third time in four games, plays Vernon Hills at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Vernon Hills 52, Highland Park 34: At Mundelein, Kayla Caudle had 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocks and 2 assists for the Cougars, who improved to 1-1 in the tournament.
Becky Bahlmann added 9 points and 6 rebounds for Vernon Hills (8-7). Sophia Lehocky contributed 8 points. The Cougars play Mundelein at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.