Malley, Palatine shoot down Lake Zurich

The combination of a career-high 23 points from Palatine's Egan Malley and clutch free throw shooting down the stretch helped lift the Pirates to a 62-53 win over Lake Zurich in the Ed Molitor Thanksgiving Tournament on Wednesday night in Palatine.

"He has a good shot and he let the game come to him," said Palatine coach Eric Millstone, whose team is now 1-1. "He doesn't seem to force things and lets the game come to him."

Malley connected on 6 of 9 shots from the field and was perfect at the free throw line in 9 attempts.

"The offense is coming naturally to me," said Malley. "I know that I still have to work on be defense to be a complete player. We knew we had a good chance to beat Lake Zurich. We had to drive on them and then that opened up the outside for us."

The Bears hurt their chances early in the contest when they hit on just 2 of 9 free throws in the first quarter and fell behind 8-4. Laze Zurich then spent the rest of the night playing catch-up.

"Missing those free throws and a chance to be ahead hurt us," said Bears coach Billy Pitcher. "We were not as agressive as we wanted to be. We made some nice comebacks but then they hit some key baskets."

Lake Zurich was never too far back, but consecutive 3-pointers by Malley and Austin Marrison put Palatine up 34-24 with 4:30 left in the third quarter.

The Bears had a chance to pull closer than 51-46. With 3:33 left, two missed freee throws and a 6-point swing by Palatine ended Lake Zurich's hope for a comeback, and the Bears trailed 57-46 with 1:55 left. Peter Bony scored 4 points and Malley had another basket in the spurt.

Palatine's bench produced 23 bench points. Marrison had 8 and Jim Smearman had 5. Senior Jeremy Driggers pulled down 6 rebounds and chipped in a couple of baskets. John Millin added 7 points.

The Bears were led by Mirko Grcic with 20 points and 9 rebounds. Colin Rathe added 10 points.

"We did well at the free throw line by hitting 16 of 20 and 7 of 8 in the fourth quarter," said Millstone. "We have a good group of juniors and they need to develop. The seniors need to help them along."