Boys basketball: Paasch, Warren shoot past Libertyville

Joel Paasch knocked down four straight three-pointers to begin the evening on his way to a team-high 17 points as Warren remained unbeaten in North Suburban Conference play with an 82-49 road victory over Libertyville on Friday night.

Paasch, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, had the hot hand and the Blue Devils (26-2, 13-0) kept feeding him the ball as they jumped out to a double-digit lead early on.

Warren standout guard Braylon Walker matched him with 17 and Jaxson Davis added 16.

“I tend to start games hot,” said Paasch. “[Against] East Chicago, I had 5 back-to-back like that. I'm kind of streaky in that way where I'll just kind of like heat up and then Jaxson, Braylon, all those dudes do a really good job of finding me in those situations.”

He drained a corner three in front of a loud Libertyville student section to open the scoring.

The Wildcats (14-12, 7-6) responded with a layup from senior guard Ben Kristopher before Paasch quickly splashed his second three of the night to make it 6-2 Warren.

Senior forward Jack Cenar shot back with a three of his own for Libertyville to cut the Blue Devil lead to 6-5. But then Davis found Paasch two more times from long range in the span of 30 seconds.

Paasch drained both shots to quiet the gym and force a Wildcat timeout.

“I love playing in front of a crowd like that,” said Paasch. “I've always loved the little banter. I hear a lot of stuff from the students section. You always do. I love to hear it. I think it's hilarious that they're just all out there talking. I think it's really cool.”

Davis, a 4-star junior and 2025 Illinois Mr. Basketball, typically draws his fair share of attention from opposing teams; however, he was surprised that Libertyville was leaving Paasch enough room to keep shooting.

“Joel is an amazing shooter,” said Davis. “We all know the shots he's able to knock down, and they're just leaving him wide open, which is not normal.”

“As a point guard, my job is to just keep feeding him. So I was just able to find him. He just kept converting,” added Davis.

As the Wildcats began to focus on Paasch, it seemed to open things up for both Davis and Walker, as they ran the floor and stretched the advantage for Warren.

After Davis and Walker threw down consecutive breakaway dunks, Paasch nailed one more three-pointer to make it 17 first quarter points for him, and the Blue Devils closed the quarter with a 31-7 lead they would not relinquish.

“We're just having fun with it,” said a smiling Davis. “We know playoffs are coming…We can't take these times for granted. We're not in high school forever, so we just want to have fun while we're also winning, taking care of business.”

The Blue Devils came within a single point of bringing home the IHSA 4A title last season and there are certainly expectations for another lengthy postseason run this time around. But for the time being, this group is focused on enjoying the ride.

“Being a senior, time’s running out, and it's nice to have a little bit of fun,” said Paasch. “When this end comes, then when the playoffs come, we can lock it back in and really get to work.”

For Warren coach Zack Ryan, there is also pride to be taken in earning the program's first outright North Suburban title since he took over to begin the 2022-2023 campaign. The Blue Devils split the NSC title with Lake Forest in 2023-2024.

“It's one of the things we talked about back even in the summer,” said Ryan. “Last year, we had a great end of the season, but we finished fourth in the conference. We got second in state.”

“So our first goal was like, ‘Hey, we want to win our conference, we want to do that first’, and then, you know, if we can, if we're lucky enough to get hot at the end, we'll do that,” he added.

The Blue Devils will look to complete their perfect conference run next Wednesday at home against Zion-Benton.

“It's an amazing feeling,” said Davis. “I don't know when the last time a team has gone undefeated in conference, so we had the opportunity to do that next week — I feel like we've been building this over for the last 4 years, when I was in 8th grade, so now I'm in high school now as a junior, and I think this year we're trying to put the pieces together.”

As for Libertyville, they could not find the answers to slow Warren, but they will look to bounce back against Mundelein next Wednesday.

“There's a reason they're one of the top teams in the state,” said Wildcats coach Brian Zyrkowski. “They’ve got one of the best players in the country.

“This week was a rough week for our team, but adversity hits at many different times. It's all about how you handle that and move forward. Our guys are a good group of guys. They're gonna bounce back, and we got one more game in conference, and then you're getting to the regional.”