Warren 51, Lake Zurich 44
As he walked from the locker room after a hard-fought, 32-minute battle against defending North Suburban Conference champion Warren, Lake Zurich junior Connor Mooney just shook his head.
Mooney, like most in the NSC Lake division opener for both teams, had trouble finding the basket in what turned out to be a tough shooting night for both teams.
"I just shot the ball terrible," Mooney said. "I can't remember ever shooting it that bad."
While Mooney and several other Bear and Blue Devil players struggled, Warren senior Tayler Erbach found the dimly lit surroundings at Lake Zurich to his liking.
Erbach scored a career-best 19 points and hauled in 11 boards to lift the Blue Devils to a 51-44 win, handing the Bears their first loss of the season.
"The rims were real soft and I know everyone talked about the lighting too -- but those aren't excuses because no one shot it well early," Breach said. "Once I started making a few in a row then things started to go for me and I felt in a good rhythm."
Erbach was at his best in the second half, when the points finally started to come easier for Warren (4-0, 1-0). Fourteen of his points came after intermission including 8 in the final quarter when the Devils started to pull away.
"Tayler played like he was capable of tonight," Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. "I thought he did a good job defensively and did well in guarding (Dan) Coleman."
It was a tip-in by Erbach that gave the Blue Devils the lead back as the halftime buzzer sounded, and then it was a beautiful behind-the-back pass to Jake Anderson (8 points) that gave Warren its biggest lead of the night to start the fourth quarter ahead 36-27.
"Coach (Bill) Werly taught us that one," Erbach said with a laugh. "He teaches us all kinds of moves."
Warren broke the game open with a 9-2 run to open the third quarter. Illinois-bound junior Brandon Paul scored 5 of his 12 points during the brief run that helped the Blue Devils to a 34-27 lead after three quarters.
"One thing that we just weren't able to do tonight was get the ball in the basket," Lake Zurich coach John Zarr said. "We had the ability to get the shots we wanted but we just did not convert."
Lake Zurich (4-1, 0-1) pulled within 6 points on two different occasions in the fourth quarter, but could not get any closer than that.
Mooney was able to finish in double-digits with 13 points but it came on 5-of-20 shooting from the field. Andy Garlisch also hit double figures with 10 off the bench for the Bears.