It's Bear weather as LZ tops Barrington
With Monday afternoon's 57-45 win over Barrington in the Chicago Holiday Basketball Classic, Lake Zurich girls coach Chris Bennett saw his team improve to 12-1.
He also saw a Barrington team that he believes will continue to improve.
"They're going to be very dangerous come sectional time as their young kids become older," said the fourth-year Bears coach. "They'll be very dangerous and we could see them again on their court (in a Class 4A sectional hosted by Barrington). They have a lot of good younger players."
Lake Zurich obviously has some good players, too.
While winning their second straight in the CHBC, the Bears were led by senior Lydia Bauer (12), senior Olivia Allen (11 points), junior Audrey Bauer (10) and freshman Maise Cox (7).
"They're so balanced," said Fillies coach Babbi Barreiro. "You can't let anyone of their kids alone on the floor. They are a team that does a lot of the little things well and fundamentally they are very strong."
Barrington (9-4) stayed close in the first quarter and trailed 16-14 when sophomore Brooke Chandor made a layup late in the first quarter.
Sophomore Sarah Mass's free throw to start the second quarter brought the Fillies to within 16-15 but the Bears took control with a 15-3 run.
The big rally started with a 16-footer by Amanda Orchard, followed by Lydia Bauer's 3-pointer with 6:48 left in the half.
A free throw by Audrey Bauer, an inside bucket by Allen and a 17-footer by Cox made it 31-18 with 3:23 left in the half.
The lead got as high as 19 points (3:14 left in the game) and as small as 7 when sophomore Sam Maasarani hit her second of two 3-pointers with 1:02 left in the game making it 51-44.
"What really made the difference for us was our offense," said junior guard Sarah Stauner, who tossed home 6 points along with classmate Jenna Froehlich.
"We were finding the open person. Our defense was a little weak. Our goal is always to hold teams under 40 but our huge goal is under 32. We got ourselves into some foul trouble (Barrington shot 29 free throws) and that didn't help.
"We've got some tough teams coming up (Montini today) and we've got to get tougher on defense."
"It's nice to know we can still get a win when we don't play as well as we can defensively," Lydia Bauer said. "But we have to play better defense."
The Fillies were led by sophomore Abby Kirchoff's 17 points while Maasarani and Chandor each had 6.
Chandor suffered a sprained ankle and strained muscle and Barreiro said the 5-10 forward will be sidelined for a while.
"Our kids just didn't show up," she added. "I was disappointed with our offensive and defensive execution. We didn't box out. We didn't do a lot of the major things that we must do. We have a lot of role players and we had too many people who weren't doing their jobs."
The Fillies will face Stevenson on Tuesday.
"It's good to play the good teams in this tournament," Schnack said. "We just have to focus and work better as a team. Lake Zurich rebounded very well and they were able to finish their shots They were quick and tough to defend."