Boys basketball: No slowing down Warren
After losing to perennial power Warren by 17 and 33 points in their first two meetings, the Libertyville boys basketball team was facing an uphill struggle when they faced the host Blue Devils for the Class 4A regional championship Friday night.
The Wildcats gave No. 3-ranked Warren quite a scare as they hung tough the whole game trailing 64-62 after two free throws by 6-foot-9 senior Bryce Wegrzyn (game-high 30 points, 12 rebounds) with 1:07 to play.
But the No. 1-seeded Blue Devils (30-3) came through down the stretch as they outscored Libertyville (16-13) 6-3 the rest of the way to capture a hard-fought 70-65 victory. It was Warren's 26th regional title in school history as the Blue Devils advanced to the Hononegah sectional semifinals against Rockford Auburn Tuesday at 6 p.m.
A free throw by Warren's LeBron Massey made the score 65-62 with 41 seconds to play before two free throws by Avonn King boosted the lead to 67-62 with 21 seconds remaining.
Libertyville's Jack Cenar (8 points) hit two free throws to cut the gap to 67-64 with 11.3 seconds left before Warren's Jaxson Davis (22 points, 8 assists) hit one free throw with 10.5 seconds to go to make the score 68-64.
A free throw by Wegrzyn cut the lead to 68-65 with 4.4 seconds to go. Wegrzyn purposely missed the second free throw, but the ball never hit the rim and Warren got the ball out of bounds. Davis added two free throws with 3.7 seconds left to account for the final score.
Senior Braylon Walker had a huge game for the Blue Devils with a team-high 26 points while senior teammate Joel Paasch had 8 points.
"It was great to get the win and move on to the next game," said Walker. "We've definitely got to work on our defense and communicate better on defense because every team is going to give us their best shot."
Warren led 16-15 after one quarter and 39-30 at halftime. But the Wildcats outscored the Blue Devils 21-15 in the third quarter, and they tied the game at 51-51 late in that period.
Libertyville sophomore Nick Baker scored 11 points while teammates Ben Kristopher and Trevor Wallaced scored 8 and 6 points respectively.
"Libertyville is a really good team, and they played a really tough schedule so credit goes to them," said Warren coach Zack Ryan. "This was good for us to play a tough game and we had to hit some big free throws. It's always tough to beat a team three times and we did enough to win."
Warren held its biggest lead at 39-29 late in the second quarter before an 9-point run by Libertyville made the score 39-38 early in the third quarter.
"The guys gave it everything they've got and they made coaching fun,- they're just an amazing group of guys," said Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski. "Every time we inched back they capitalized and Jaxson and Walker made some big plays,- those guys are big time."