Bears step up 'D' against Patriots
Defense has been a key to the success of the Lake Zurich's girls basketball team, and Saturday evening was no different.
Lake Zurich allowed only 1 point in the third quarter as the Bears defeated visiting Stevenson 65-50 in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division game.
"We've been focusing on the defensive side of the court since the holiday tournament and in practice this week," Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said. "We had two not-so-good defensive efforts (in losses) against Montini and Loyola so we needed to clean our defense up a little."
Lake Zurich won its second game in a row to improve to 14-4 overall and 4-1 in the NSC Lake. Stevenson fell to 4-15 and 1-4 with its ninth straight loss.
Stevenson played without starting guard Claire Moller, who was out with the flu, and senior Chelsea Jacobsen, who was sidelined with a broken jaw.
"I thought our girls tried to make things happen and worked real hard tonight," Patriots coach Trish Betthauser said.
Guard Olivia Allen led the way for Lake Zurich with a career-high 22 points, She was 11 of 15 from the free throw line.
"I work hard on my foul shooting all the time," Allen said. "We worked hard by boxing out in the second and third quarters and forcing them to make mistakes."
Allen scored 13 points in the second half.
"Olivia plays well when she is aggressive," Bennett said.
Lake Zurich shot 20 of 28 (71 percent) from the foul line.
Peggie Parhas provided the long distance for the Bears, popping three 3-pointers to score 17 points.
"After they were leading 11-10, we stepped it up on our defense," Parhas said. "We also made our open shots."
Lydia Bauer added 12 points and Audrey Bauer chipped in 6 for Lake Zurich.
Stevenson received 12 points apiece from Kayla Fisher and Caitlin Morrissey. Courtney Graber added 11, scoring all of her points -- and all of the Patriots' -- in the second quarter.
Freshman Michelle O'Brien scored 7 points and had had her best game of the season, Betthauser said.
Stevenson outscored Lake Zurich 11-10 in the first quarter, and 27-16 in the fourth quarter but got outscored 39-12 in the middle quarters.
"In the fourth quarter, I knew we had to get on it," Fisher said. "In the second and third quarters, we lost track. We weren't talking on offense and we weren't getting back on defense."
"That's been a little bit of our problem, just putting four quarters together," Betthauser said. "When we do play well, we look good."
-- Irv Solomon
Grant 37, Vernon Hills 21: The host Bulldogs led only 15-11 at halftime, then outscored the Cougars 8-0 in the third quarter to remain undefeated in the North Suburban Prairie Division game
Jamie Swanson scored a game-high 13 points for Grant (15-2, 5-0), while Autumn Gaylor added 11. Tori Ziegler had 7 and Heather Ruetsche 6, including 4 in the third quarter.
Vernon Hills (7-11, 3-3) was led by Amy Burton with 10 points and 5 rebounds. Brianna Skeens had 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and a 3-pointer for her only points. Mallory Feece contributed 5 rebounds.
Lane 38, Carmel 32: The Corsairs dropped the nonconference home game to fall to 9-8.
Boys swimming
At Vernon Hills: Duncan Partridge won one event and swam on a pair of winning relays, as Stevenson won the Cougar College Events.
The Patriots' 130 points edged Libertyville (125), while Glenbrook North (101) was third.
Partridge touched first in the 50-yard freestyle. He was joined on the 400 free relay by Jamie Clark, Owen Yang and Matt Duncan. Stevenson's victorious 800 free relay featured Partridge, Clark, Chris Wiatr and Ty Kuper. Matt Stiefel captured diving for the Patriots.
Libertyville got a pair of wins from Stevie Wimer, who took the 200 butterfly and 1,000 freestyle. Ben Glick (200 backstroke) and Danny LeJeune (200 breaststroke) also had wins for the Wildcats. Libertyville won the 400 medley relay with Glick, Austin Hoover, Kegan Rogers and John Blankenhorn.
Girls gymnastics
In its first-ever appearance at the Larkin Royal girls gymnastics invitational, South Elgin/Bartlett co-op grabbed gold after winning the team competition at the 15-team event. And it came in near-record fashion as it held off Batavia by the slimmest of margins: 138.4-138.375.
It was the second-closest team finish in the 24-year history of the invite. Neuqua Valley and Crystal Lake South tied ( 138.15) for the title in 2002.
Lakes' Cody Ksioszk (37.05) won the all-around competition for the Eagles.
"We started on the beam and I was a little shaky (8.85), but after that I picked it up a little," said Ksioszk, after Lakes (132.2 ) took sixth place in the team competition.
Buffalo Grove's Linda Dunne, the all-around champion last season as the Bison won their first-ever Larkin Royal Invite, entered the meet with all-around wins in each of BG's meets this season, minus second-place showings against two of the top gymnasts in the state -- Glenbard North's Marissa Bosco at the Hersey Candy Cane Invitational on Dec. 13 and in the season-opener against Fremd and senior Mary Burke, the defending state all-around champion.
But was there any pressure for the sophomore to repeat at Larkin?
"No, she's pretty confident and pretty laid back," said Buffalo Grove coach Stephanie Schrader, whose team took fifth place with 132.6. "She's never really uptight at all."
Dunne opened the meet with a 9.2 on floor, then followed with a fourth-place effort on vault (9.45). She posted a 8.95 on bars and took first on beam (9.15) as she took second (36.75) in the all-around.