Trees hits game-winner for Wildcats
With time ticking down and his team trailing by 1 point, Libertyville junior Josh Trees didn't have time to think. Instead, he did what all good shooters do -- shoot.
The Wildcats trailed visiting Lake Zurich 51-50 with 12.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Libertyville had a chance to tie or even take the lead at the free throw line, but a pair of misses led to Trees' chance.
After the second miss, the ball was tipped into the capable hands Libertyville senior Joey Aiello. He turned and, there was Trees all by himself just to the left of the lane.
Trees' 16-footer with six seconds left in the game lifted the Wildcats to their first win in North Suburban Lake play 52-51.
"Joey got the ball and found me and I just let it flow," said Trees who scored 7 of his 13 points in the final eight minutes. "I didn't have time to think about the shot at all. I just caught it and shot it."
Trees' bucket capped a wild comeback by Libertyville (3-4, 1-3), which trumped an even wilder comeback by the Bears.
Lake Zurich trailed by as many as 8 points in the second half, including at 40-32 with 38 seconds to play in the third quarter, but the Bears simply wouldn't let the Wildcats get too far ahead.
"When you have two teams like us and Lake Zurich, who have struggled in the conference, it makes it hard when the pressure is on," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "I think both teams were looking for that knockout punch to put the other team away and neither team could find it."
Trees opened the fourth quarter with a running layup and the Wildcats seemed to be on their way to earning their first conference win. But as quickly as the Wildcats got the lead, they lost it.
Lake Zurich (4-4, 0-4) drew even on a long 3-pointer by Chas Evans, then took its first lead since early in the second quarter on an offensive putback from Marko Grcic (7 points) with 3:22 remaining.
"We just didn't execute the fundamentals down the stretch, and that is how we lost this game," Lake Zurich coach John Zarr said. "This is one we just let get away."
The Bears appeared to have the game sewn up, taking a 51-48 lead on a pair of Danny Coleman free throws with 3:05 to go. But turnovers in the final three minutes killed Lake Zurich.
Libertyville forced four turnovers in a row in the final two minutes, including a steal by Aiello (12 points) with under a minute to go that set up the final possession.
As the Wildcats were moving up the floor, Bogumil yelled to both the players on the floor and to his bench "We are not going to lose this game tonight."
"I don't think I can predict those things, I was just trying to be positive even when it didn't look so good," Bogumil said.
Bogumil's exclamation nearly became reality as the Wildcats had two chances at the free throw line before a miss set up Trees' game-winner.
Libertyville built an early 12-point cushion on the shoulders of 6-foot-6 junior Jeremy Letchford, who scored 11 of his game-high 18 points in the first half .
Connor Mooney led Lake Zurich with 14 points.
"This game wasn't going to come down to whether or not (Libertyville) made a free throw or not," Zarr said. "It would be decided if we got the rebound on a miss or if they did."