A first for Lakes against Wauconda
Lakes’ girls basketball team got a couple of firsts on Thursday night.
The Eagles beat Wauconda 53-40 in a North Suburban Prairie Division opener for their first win of the season. It was also the first time that Lakes has beaten Wauconda.
“It is good to take care of our conference games,” Lakes coach Pete Schneider said. “We played in a tough tournament at Lake Zurich for Thanksgiving and had to use those games and that experience to improve. I have a very competitive group this year. The want to win at every drill and work as hard as any team I have had.”
Lakes led the entire game but Wauconda would not go away.
“Thank goodness we shoot well from the free-throw line,” Schneider said. “We shoot a lot of free throws and we needed all of them.”
Lakes shot 10 for 13 from the line in the fourth quarter and 17 of 27 for the night.
“(Wauconda) is very well coached,” Schneider said. “Jamie (Dennis) does a great job with her teams. Heck, they won the conference the past two years. I am going to hate to see them in January.”
Lakes had 4 players in double figures led by Ashlee Cunningham with 12 points. Amanda Smith and Terese McMahon had 11 apiece, and Sam Ney contributed 10.
“We played all of our kids and they all contributed to the win,” Schneider said. “It is great to have kids helping, talking and working so well together. We are still putting all of the pieces in place.”
Wauconda was led by Diana Enriquez with 19 points.
“Diana is a good player and was hard for us to handle,” Schneider said. “She penetrates well and did a great job of finishing.”
Stevenson 40, Zion-Benton 39: Katie Batman scored 12 points on four 3-pointers, and the Patriots won their North Suburban Lake opener on the road.
Stevenson (4-1) was up 15 in the fourth quarter but fell behind by 3, before pulling out its fourth straight win.
Freshman Taylor Buford played well down the stretch for the Patriots, hitting a basket and a couple of free throws and handling the ball well, coach Tom Dineen said.
Alex Elzinga added 10 points and Kari Moffat had 9 for Stevenson.
“I thought our half-court defense was outstanding,” Dineen said. “We did what we wanted to do on offense, but (Zion-Benton) scored all of their points off their press.”
Grant 43, North Chicago 39: Morgan Jahnke scored 17 points and Kassie Stimpson added 10 for the Bulldogs in their North Suburban Prairie opener.
Vernon Hills 68, Round Lake 24: Sydney Smith had 19 points, 10 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists and 2 blocks for the Cougars in the North Suburban Prairie opener.
Meri Bennett-Swanson also had a double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Brie Bahlmann chipped in 10 points.