Lake Forest hangs on to hand Warren its first North Suburban Conference defeat

Lake Forest pulled off an exciting 54-51 upset victory over host Warren on Wednesday night in North Suburban Conference boys basketball action.

Warren (16-3, 4-1) was unbeaten in NSC before the game, but the Scouts (12-5, 4-1) really played some inspired basketball to tie their biggest lead at 44-34 late in the third quarter.

Little by little the Blue Devils kept chipping away at the lead until a steal by freshman Jaxson Davis (team-high 20 points) led to a basket by teammate Javerion Banks to force a 51-51 deadlock with 40 seconds to play.

But Lake Forest responded by getting a huge inside basket by Hudson Scroggins (game-high 21 points) to regain a 53-51 lead with 20 seconds remaining.

Then Davis missed on a drive with time running out as the Scouts grabbed the rebound with only 0.3 seconds left. Lake Forest's Campbell Allan hit the second of two free throws, and Warren did not have enough time left to attempt a desperation 3-pointer to tie the game resulting in the 54-51 final score.

"I thought we had a nice lead there in the second quarter (26-16) and didn't sustain it, and against a good team that is disciplined and takes care of the ball when you've got a chance to maybe put them away you've got to do it," said Warren coach Zack Ryan, whose team led 26-25 at halftime. "And then they just really executed well in the second half and we didn't make a lot of shots so credit goes to them. We've got a lot of work to do so we've got to just kind of get back to the drawing board and see things we've got to work on."

The Blue Devils had a 16-point run during one stretch of the first half that was answered by Lake Forest's 9-point run to end the second quarter.

Tom Aberle had a big game for the Scouts with 15 points while Warren's Alex Daniels hit double figures with 10 points. Banks and Allan scored 9 points each.

"I thought defensively we stepped up, they are a very good offensive and defensive team and I thought we did a good job of getting the ball inside," said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala, whose team outscored Warren 20-11 in the third quarter. "Hudson Scroggins did an unbelievable job on the boards for us, we were missing one of our big guys (6-foot-10 Grant Mordini), he (Scroggins) had to play some extra minutes and he did an unbelievable job."