Round Lake keeps rolling

At least something around here was all toasty warm this week.

In fact, the Round Lake boys basketball team, over the course of some of the coldest days on record, was hot, hot, hot.

The Panthers hadn't won a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division game all season until they slipped by Antioch on Monday in a makeup game.

Well, consider Round Lake on a roll, because on Friday, it was more of the same.

The Panthers rallied in the fourth quarter and hit some big-time free throws in the final 20 seconds to squeak out a 43-40 Prairie Division victory over host Wauconda.

Round Lake improves to 3-13 overall, 2-4 in the division while Wauconda slips to 2-13 (0-6 Prairie). The Bulldogs, who squandered a game-high 20 points by junior forward Matt Stonis, have lost 12 straight games dating back to late November.

"Two wins this week-that's pretty good," Round Lake coach Howard Kravets gleamed. "We're growing up. Our young kids are getting better, we're handling adversity better. A month ago, we wouldn't have had the wherewithal to come back like we did."

Round Lake and Wauconda were tied heading into the fourth quarter, 29-29. But thanks to some nice plays by Stonis and Eric Hartnett, Wauconda had built a 5-point lead (40-35) with only 1:35 left to play. And in a game in which points were so tough to come by, 5 points felt more like 10.

But the Panthers didn't back down.

Freshman guard Juddon Carter hit a free throw and a 3-pointer in back-to-back possessions to bring Round Lake to within a point, 40-39. Then the Panthers forced Wauconda into a couple of turnovers. And in pressing to get the ball back, the Bulldogs wound up sending Round Lake to the free throw line.

Tim Kelley hit 3-of-4 free throws in the final 21 seconds and David Windham added another for the Panthers, who closed out with an 8-0 run.

"I don't think I've ever been in a situation like that before," said Kelly, whose only points came on the 3 free throws. "I went to the line pretty nervous. But I knew I had to step up and do something good."

Sophomore Jake Paulsen also did some good things for the Panthers.

He finished with a team-high 10 points and was very active on the offensive boards, which gave Round Lake all kinds of extra opportunities to get back into the game.

"We didn't use to have a lot of confidence, especially at the end of games," Paulsen said. "But we're a lot more confident now and we're just hoping that (the success of this week) can help turn around our season and give us some momentum."

Speaking of, the Bulldogs were kicking themselves at how they completely lost all the momentum they had acquired early in the fourth quarter.

But late collapses have been a pattern throughout the season. If they haven't lost big, closing out has been a problem for them.

"It was just mental lapses," Wauconda senior guard Gibson Gaite said. "We weren't executing anything at the end. We weren't together as a team. It's very frustrating."

Besides Paulsen and Stonis, there were no other double-figure scorers on either side. The Panthers had three players score 8 points: Windham, Carter and Jon Martinez. Wauconda got 8 points from Hartnett and Gaite.

"We had opportunities (to win the game) and we just didn't take advantage of them," Wauconda coach Rich Wolf said. "It's disappointing, but I told the kids after the game that we just have to use this as a learning experience."