Lake Zurich wins a thriller
It was a great back-and-forth battle down the stretch Thursday night when Lake Zurich faced visiting Libertyville in North Suburban Conference boys basketball action.
The Wildcats took a 53-52 lead on a 3-pointer by Liam Hansen with 2:05 to play. But the host Bears outscored Libertyville 6-1 the rest of the way to pull out a hard-fought 58-54 NSC victory behind some great 3-point shooting by sophomore Kain Kretschmar.
Two missed free throws with 1:32 to play could have extended the Wildcats’ lead. But instead a driving basket by Lake Zurich’s Nick Popovic gave the Bears the lead for keeps at 54-53 with 1:13 to go.
Hansen (game-high 26 points) missed a 3-pointer with 25 seconds remaining before Lake Zurich (6-3, 3-1) got the rebound. Popovic (10 points) hit two free throws with 9.5 seconds left to boost the lead to 56-53. Then Hansen was intentionally fouled with 4.3 seconds to play, he hit the first free throw and purposely missed the second free throw.
Lake Zurich’s Connor Strauss (12 points) grabbed the rebound and hit two free throws with two seconds left to seal the narrow victory.
Kretschmar scored 15 of his team-high 24 points in the second half while hitting six 3-pointers in the contest.
“It was a tough team, we pulled through, we kept the defensive intensity high in the timeouts and we came out with the win,” said Kretschmar, whose team trailed 23-12 early in the second quarter. “It’s a really big win. This gives us a lot of confidence going into the season with a lot more to come.”
Libertyville (3-7, 0-3) led 28-24 at halftime, but a 7-1 run by Lake Zurich gave the Bears a 44-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Wildcats trailed 50-43 with 4:41 to play before staging their late comeback.
Sophomore Bryce Wegrzyn had a big game for Libertyville with 20 points while Lake Zurich’s Anton Strelnikov scored 8 points.
“It’s about growing and we keep getting better so I’m really proud of our guys,” said Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski. “Just these last two games I have seen the team grow faster than we’ve grew in a month so I’m impressed and I’m excited for the next game.”
After only going 5-for-18 from inside the arc in the first half, Lake Zurich picked up the pace by outscoring the Wildcats 20-11 in the third quarter.
“When we get stops we’re good, and we got three of four stops to end the game,” said Lake Zurich coach Terry Coughlin. “Kain is really good, but he’s a sophomore and he picked us up offensively. He was energized and enthused from the start.”