Roach, LZ find that winning suits them

The theme heading into Thursday’s game against visiting Zion-Benton was bad sweater night for the Lake Zurich Bears boy’s basketball team.

Only problem was, junior Ryan Roach couldn’t find one.

“I had to borrow one from one of my friends,” Roach said of his fine blue, and read sweater with a festive Christmas reindeer on the front. “It turned out to be a good pick-up.”

Luckily for Lake Zurich, Roach didn’t have any trouble finding his teammates on the court. He contributed 9 assists to go with 7 rebounds and 8 points to lift the Bears to a 54-47 win over Zion for LZ’s first North Suburban Lake Division win of the season.

“I thought the big difference for us tonight was Ryan Roach, our point guard,” said Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher. “Mirko (Grcic) is a great player and really did score for us, but I thought Ryan gave us a spark tonight.”

After missing the first four games of the season due to a suspension, Roach has moved into the role similar to the one that he filled at the end of last season as a sophomore.

“I think he is just starting to develop his confidence again after missing those games,” Pitcher said. “He was terrific over the summer and he came back and started right away for us, but it’s taken some time. He is getting there.”

Roach and Lake Zurich (4-5, 1-3) struggled early as Zion-Benton raced out to a 15-6 lead after one quarter.

“I thought Lake Zurich played very well tonight,” Zion coach Don Kloth said. “We got off to a very good start but Lake Zurich came back and really outplayed us in all facets of the game after that.”

It took until the third quarter for Lake Zurich to finally grab the lead. A big 7-point effort from senior Jeff O’Brien in the quarter brought Lake Zurich the lead. Then a 3-point-play from Roach with 2:53 left in the period gave the Bears the lead for good.

“We were kind of passive in the first half,” Roach said. “In the second half we came out with more fire and played like we had nothing to lose.”

Grcic was a huge part of the Lake Zurich offense again. He scored 14 of his game-best 24 points in the second half, including 12 in the fourth quarter as the Bears began to get separation from Zion-Benton (4-5, 1-3). Senior Doug Murphy also hit double figures for the Bears with all but 2 of his 10 points coming after halftime.

The Zee-Bees, who were led by Malik Yarbrough with 16 points, fell to the Bears for the second time in a row at Lake Zurich.