Girls basketball: Lake Zurich shoots past Libertyville, takes NSC lead by half game

Addison Leonard and Leah Gilbertson made sure that Lake Zurich stayed alive.

The duo combined for 33 points as Lake Zurich got off to a strong start and rolled past Libertyville 50-28 Wednesday in Lake Zurich.

The win for the Bears (17-8, 10-1) moved them a half-game ahead of Libertyville (18-5, 9-1) in the race for the North Suburban Conference title. It was a must-win game for the Bears, who had lost to Libertyville 38-33 on Dec. 12.

The win was just the second for Lake Zurich over Libertyville in the last six years.

“That was pretty darn good,” Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said. “The kids were locked in focused. We had a game plan and they executed it really well.”

Bennett loved the way his team defended.

“They have the best player in the conference in Lily Fisher, “ Bennett said. “And you have to do your best job to contain her. We did a nice job with Addy Leonard on her early and (Leah) Gilbertson later along with other people.”

Lake Zurich, which has three conference games remaining, got off to a fabulous start. Leonard keyed that strong opening by scoring 12 of her 16 points in the first quarter.

“I knew we needed to lock down Lily (Fisher),” said Leonard, who is a junior and missed part of this season with an injury.

“And then do things on offense. We knew where the open spots were. And if I was open on the three, I just took it because they were giving us that.”

With the Bears already leading 10-5 in the first quarter, Lake Zurich really went to work.

Pressuring Libertyville on the defensive end to force some early turnovers, the Bears scored 12 unanswered points to lead 22-5. Gilbertson, who would finish with 17 points, had seven of her points during that span.

“We had a strong mentality coming into this game tonight,” Gilbertson said. “We knew we had to play our hardest and come out with the win. We were all on the same page tonight.”

Lake Zurich upped its lead to 29-9 late in the first half. Libertyville then caught fire in the final two minutes of the half and closed to 29-17.

Lake Zurich ended any of Libertyville’s hopes of a comeback with more solid play.

Leading 35-22, the Bears leaned on Alex Novak-Tice to score 8 unanswered points. Novak-Tice would score five of those points and finish with 6 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots while Layne Nordstrom finished with six points.

“We got a piece of it now,” Gilbertson said. “But we need to take care of business.”

Fisher led Libertyville with 14 points. But no other Libertyville player scored more than three points.

“They came out and punched us in the mouth in the first five minutes of the game,” said Libertyville coach Greg Petersen, whose team has four NSC games remaining.

“We needed multiple kids to step up and we’re still working on that process to find the people who are ready to make plays for us. We’ll learn from what went on here today on film and we have a big one with Mundelein at home on Friday.”