Lakes comes up big against Grayslake North

Lakes' big lineup yielded a big victory.

Behind Tyler Swindle's game-high 24 points and John Androus' second triple-double of his three-year varsity career, Lakes' boys basketball team cooled off a hot Grayslake North squad, winning 64-61 in a nonconference game in Lake Villa on Saturday night.

Lakes improved to 11-17 with its second win in as many nights, while Grayslake North, which got 20 points from Teddy Ludwick, fell to 12-12 in seeing its season-best four-game winning streak snapped.

"We beat them in regionals last year (64-44) and they've gotten a lot better," said Swindle, a 6-foot-2 senior who had 27 points against North Chicago two weeks ago. "We knew they'd be hard competition because they got 'Puch' (senior guard Matt Pucher) and a few other good shooters. We just wanted to come out with good energy."

The Eagles did just that, opening a 22-16 lead after one quarter, thanks largely to Swindle going 4 of 4 from three-point range.

"I just wanted to come out strong as a team," said Swindle, who finished with five 3s. "I've never had (a quarter) like that anywhere. They were giving me shots so I took them."

But Grayslake North's Myles Siemsen (season-high 14 points, 7 rebounds) helped keep the Knights close by hitting three 3-pointers in the first half. His putback late in the half got the visitors within 31-29, before Lakes' Marcell KirkmanBey answered with a baseline drive.

"That's probably the best shooting night he's had," Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said of Siemsen, who was 4 of 13 from beyond the arc, despite missing his last three attempts. "If it weren't for Teddy (Ludwick) overshadowing him on the perimeter he would be getting a few more points than he what he does."

Up 33-29 at the half, Lakes employed a 2-3 zone and went tall with Swindle, Androus (13 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 steals), KirkmanBey (17 points), Nathan McMahon and Deondre Hudson.

It was big.

"I thought against their smaller lineup they were beating us up pretty good," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "At halftime we said let's see what happens with a 2-3 zone. We went on a run and just stuck with it. I thought it put us in a better position with our longer arms to stop driving lanes and contest shots."

Siemsen beat the third-quarter with a 3-pointer to cut the Knights' deficit to 42-41, and Grayslake North got within a point again on three occasions in the fourth but never caught the Eagles.

Ludwick's half-court heave at the buzzer hit the backboard.

"They can really shoot and we can contest better when we got 6-5, 6-3, 6-5, 6-5 across the board," Androus said. "I thought our big lineup really helped us."

Ludwick's 10 fourth-quarter points, including a pair of 3s, helped prevent Lakes from pulling away down the stretch. Androus and Swindle scored 9 and 8 points, respectively, in the fourth.

Pucher, who averaged 25 points in Grayslake North's four straight wins, was held to 12 points (two 3-pointers).

"We've had a lot of success against zones," Grunloh said. "We've actually been struggling against man to man. But (Lakes) is so big and long. They can take up so much space just standing there. You have to throw over Androus to try to get reverses, and KirkmanBey can read the skip pass. I just thought their size gave us some problems in their zone."

Stevenson 63, Rolling Meadows 59: Nate Johnson had 17 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists for the host Patriots in the nonconference game.

Kevin Earl scored a game-high 18 points and Jeff Levitt dished out 7 assists for Stevenson (18-7), which never trailed.

Rolling Meadows (9-16) was led in scoring by sophomore Tyler Gaedele with 14 points, including four 3-pointers. The Mustangs also received 13 points from Richie Kemph and 11 from Brian Nelms.