Lake Forest carves up Kunz, Lake Zurich

Nine stitches.

That's what Lake Zurich coach John Zarr estimated forward Brandon Kunz would need to close the bloody gash on the side of his head.

He got it Wednesday night when he caught an elbow while trying to make a move in the paint during the first quarter of a game at Lake Forest.

It was the first of many headaches for the Bears.

With the 6-foot-6 Kunz on the bench for much of the first half, Lake Forest was able to build an 18-point halftime lead en route to 74-56 North Suburban Conference Lake Division victory over Lake Zurich.

The Scouts improve to 6-3 overall and 3-2 in the Lake. Lake Zurich, which drops to 4-5 overall, is still looking for its first division win. The Bears, who started out the season 4-0, are 0-5 in the Lake.

"He's a big player, he rebounds for us and he scores for us," fellow 6-foot-6 forward Danny Coleman said of Kunz, who played in the second half, but headed to the hospital following the game. Coleman wound up scoring a team-high 15 points for the Bears.

"And (Lake Forest) came out shooting hot, like lights out, like they usually do. They're a team known for shooting. We just didn't get out and cover them as well as we should have. They were knocking open shots down."

Even many of the contested shots seemed to fall for the Scouts.

Guards Matt Vogrich and Andy Timson were particularly lethal for Lake Forest.

Vogrich drained seven 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 20 points and Timson chipped in with 15 points.

The Scouts also got 11 points from David Holmes.

"We shot really well," Vogrich said. "We're small, so we have to shoot. We work on it every day. Coach (Phil LaScala) always talks about setting our feet and letting it fly because we shoot really well."

The Bears didn't shoot quite so well, which was just what Lake Forest had hoped for.

The Scouts were intent on taking Lake Zurich sharpshooter Connor Mooney out of this game. Mooney still wound up with 14 points, but sank only 3 field goals.

"Defensively is where it all starts for us," LaScala said. "We held their best player (in check). (Mooney) was 3-of-15 from the field. That was a big thing we wanted to do. Kevin Berardini, JJ Parker and Conor Johnson did a great job on him.

"If our defense is working, we're going to be successful offensively. We get a lot of transition baskets off of our defense."

Lake Zurich, which also got double figures from Andy Garlisch (10 points), cut its deficit to 10 points midway through the third quarter. But that's the closet Lake Zurich would get as Lake Forest answered with 6 straight points.

"Right now our main focus is to stay positive and to get this group headed in the right direction," Zarr said. "We need to stop the bleeding."

Zarr didn't hazard a guess as to how many stitches that might take.