Lakes starts new trophy tradition

There's now some housekeeping to do at Lakes High School.

But the fun kind.

Someone is going to have to rearrange one of the trophy cases that has been designated for the boys basketball team. Right now, it's full of all kinds of memories of the program's first two seasons of existence.

There are pictures, mementos, bits of colorful memorabilia.

Ironically, the one thing missing is the one thing that trophy cases are technically made for: trophies.

No longer.

On Saturday, Lakes picked up its first piece of hardware for the trophy case.

The Eagles, playing just their third season of varsity basketball since the school opened its doors in 2004, won the first-place trophy at the Grant Holiday Tournament by defeating McHenry 69-62 in the championship game.

Lakes came close to nabbing the prize last year but fell to host Grant in the title game.

"This is something that we haven't felt before, so this is nice," said Lakes guard Trey Williams, a senior who finished with 17 points and nailed 10 of 12 fourth-quarter free throws to help sew up the victory. "It's nice to fill that (trophy case) up. Right now, we don't have much in there.

"Hopefully, we're starting something."

For Lakes, much of its success started with Kevin Guirand, who was named the most valuable player of the tournament.

The 6-foot-1 senior forward was a nightmare inside for McHenry. He scored a game-high 27 points and was pretty much a sure thing once he got his hands on the ball.

Guirand connected on 12 of 17 shots.

"I was just trying to keep my team going and going. I was just having fun out there," Guirand said. "This year, our main goal was to come here and not mess up like we did last year.

"This feels really good because we've worked so hard and we're playing great team basketball right now. The sky's the limit."

The Eagles are certainly soaring high already.

In addition to getting this tournament win, they also ran their winning streak to eight games, improving to 9-4 overall.

"This is a nice win for us," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "Last year, we were in this game, the North Suburban title game and the regional championship, but we didn't win them. We finally broke through.

"I think we have a real nice program here and success breeds success. And it's nice for the kids to experience this."

Lakes stormed out to a 12-3 first-quarter lead, but McHenry stormed right back and went into the locker room at halftime down just 29-28, thanks in large part to the shooting of Jake Banwart.

He had 15 first-half points and a team-high 21 on the night.

The game was tied 38-38 midway through the third quarter, but Lakes shut out McHenry (6-7) 11-0 to end the quarter and take control.

"That's where it really got away from us -- during that run of theirs in the third quarter," said McHenry coach Tim Paddock, whose team has made great strides in just one year. Last season, the Warriors were playing in the last-place game of the Grant tournament. "But we kept coming back. We played a very athletic team tonight but we didn't back down."

The Warriors also got 16 points from Pat Bellich and 10 points from Chris Madson.

"We were down a lot early, we were all nervous. It was the first time we've been in a championship game," Bellich said. "It got better and we fought back. But it wasn't enough, I guess."

Grant 72, Richmond-B. 41: 41: Mike Shields recorded a triple-double for the Bulldogs, as they won the third-place game in their own tournament.

Shields had 21 points, 11 assists and 10 steals.

Grant (9-4, 3-1) also got 15 points from Curtis Oler and 11 from Gilbert Sheehan.

"We played, by far, our best game in the last three weeks," Grant coach Phil Ralston said. "Our press gave them fits."

Shields and Oler made the all-tournament team.

Northridge Prep 46, GN 33: Clay Henricksen had 10 points for Grayslake North (3-8, 1-3) in the fifth-place game.

Northridge Prep's Jack Whalen led all scorers with 26 points (three 3-pointers).