Boys basketball: Lake Zurich stuns Warren on Kretschmar’s last second free throws
Junior Kain Kretschmar furiously stormed upcourt with the ball on the play Lake Zurich calls “flood.”
The Bears had led most of Wednesday night in their upset bid at Warren but now trailed by 1 point with 16 seconds left. The 6-foot-4 Kretschmar didn’t hesitate and collided with Jack Wolf, who had already drawn 2 charging fouls, as the whistle blew and the loud crowd in Gurnee awaited the call.
The officials ruled it a block with 10 seconds left and Kretschmar calmly stepped up and hit both free throws to cap a 23-point night. And when Warren sophomore standout Jaxson Davis’ heavily pressured, off-balance 3-pointer hit the front rim the Bears had a stunning 49-48 North Suburban Conference victory.
“He had the hot hand and we trust him to get to the basket,” LZ junior point guard Evan Peterson said of the play usually called for him.
“We call it ‘flood’ where everyone gets out of the way and I go 1-on-1,” Kretschmar said after going 8-for-13 from the field. “Usually it’s for Evan but with how hot I was today it went to me.
“When the whistle blew I thought, ‘calm it down, focus in and make the shots.’ There was so much noise in the gym. The call could have gone either way but thankfully we got it.”
Kretschmar had just hit a similar drive to cut the LZ (9-9, 3-3) deficit to 48-47 with :22 left. Warren (12-5, 3-2), which was 9-for-20 overall on free throws and 5-for-12 in the fourth quarter, fumbled a downcourt pass out of bounds and the Bears used their last timeout.
“With Jaxson guarding (Evan) we thought Kain had a good matchup,” said LZ coach Terry Coughlin. “He’s a big-time offensive player and really skilled. And then we executed at the end defensively.”
Kretschmar, Peterson (7 points, 3 assists), Adrian Riep (7 points, 7 rebounds), Connor Strauss, Tyler Olson and Tyler Reed played a pivotal role in LZ building leads of 18-8 and 33-23 and never trailing the first 30:38. Peterson had a big part in limiting Davis to 9 points on 4-for-9 shooting.
Davis gave Warren its first lead at 46-44 at 1:22 with his block of a layup, rebound and court-length drive. But missing 2 of 4 free throws prevented two chances to make it a two-possession game in the final :50.
“I thought (Wolf) took a charge but that call wasn’t the difference in the game,” said Warren coach Zack Ryan. “They deserved to win and they played really well. We’re in a bit of a funk right now and not really connected the way we’ve been the last year-and-a-half.”
And LZ feels as together as any .500 team around.
“This shows we can hang with the big dogs,” Kretschmar said.