Lake Forest 65, Libertyville 48

Matt Vogrich had some hands in his face when he drove to the basket, but mostly he had wavy bangs.

"Hair-cut, hair-cut," Libertyville's small but spirited group of fans chanted at Lake Forest's floppy-haired guard.

"I don't really mind," said a smiling Vogrich, who heard similar chants in a playoff game against Fremd last season.

Vogrich sees the basket just fine, as evident by his 27-point effort in the Scouts' 65-48 win over the visiting Wildcats in a North Suburban Lake Division opener Friday night.

Vogrich got most of his points on layups, which came as the result of turnovers helped caused by Lake Forest's defense.

The 6-foot-3 junior shot 10 of 17 from floor and 6 of 6 from the foul line, punctuating his performance with a running, one-handed dunk late in the game. He also canned a 3-pointer.

"He's a good player," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "I thought he got a lot of stuff in transition, whereas in games I've scouted them he was coming off double screens and knocking shots down.

"I told the kids I was proud of the way they executed on defense in the half court, but we turned the ball over so much."

Playing without starting point guard Josh Trees, who was sidelined with what Bogumil said is a hip pointer, Libertyville (2-2) committed 26 turnovers. The Wildcats turned it over 10 times in the first quarter in spotting the Scouts a 13-4 lead.

Trees didn't practice most of the week and was sore enough one day, Bogumil said, that he couldn't get out of bed.

Trees' backup, Kevin Johns, hasn't played yet this season because of a stress fracture in his back.

"(Trees) really settles us down," Bogumil said. "We couldn't get in the offense."

Lake Forest (3-1) led 23-16 at halftime and extended the advantage to 42-29 entering the fourth quarter thanks to 8 points from Vogrich.

The lead swelled to 19 points before Joey Aiello sank 2 of his five 3-pointers in helping the Wildcats get within 55-45 with just over three minutes to go. But they got no closer.

Aiello finished with 23 points and was the only Libertyville player in double figures. Jeremy Letchford grabbed 11 rebounds, while Paul Aynilian scored 8 points coming off the bench.

"I thought we did a great job defensively," Bogumil said. "We took them out of their half-court offense. We were really boarding well, but we just couldn't get into our stuff. We started to make a run (but) we just ran out of gas and they took it to us.

Vogrich credited teammates Kevin Berardini and Kevin Gaughan for their defense. Andy Timson scored 10 points, and Berardini had 9.

"We played great help defense," Vogrich said. "(Gaughan) is a great hustle player. He took like 3 or 4 charges, and that was key. And 'Dini' (Berardini) did a great job pressuring (Libertyville's point guard)."