Defensive commitment helps Lakes past Round Lake

Getting high school basketball players to buy into up-tempo, run-and-gun offense is easy.

Getting them to buy into defense, defense and more defense. Well, not so much.

But somehow Lakes boys coach Chris Snyder has convinced his players that playing defense and practicing defense can be fun, and effective.

The Eagles' commitment to defense was on full display on Friday night in a 43-30 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division victory over visiting Round Lake.

Lakes pulls even on the season at 13-13 (6-6 Prairie) while Round Lake drops to 4-21 overall and 0-12 in the Prairie.

"Ever since I've started for Lakes, it's been defense and low-scoring games," Lakes senior forward Jordan Mercure said. "For us, it's all about hustle. We do so many defensive drills in practice. Coach really hammers into us 'Defense first.'

"He likes it when we beat up on each other going through screens. Then we practice our close-outs a lot. We practice a lot of help defense, too. We like offensive drills, too. But from what we saw last year, hard work on defense and spending a lot of time in practice on defense can lead to really good things in the playoffs. That's what motivates me."

Last year, Lakes won 18 games and advanced all the way to the sectional finals using tough defense as its calling card.

Against Round Lake, the Eagles gave up just 3 points in the second quarter and 5 points in the fourth quarter. The Panthers didn't score their first fourth quarter points until 1:39 left in the game.

"Defensively, we were good the whole game," Snyder said. "It was one of those grind-out wins that have kind of been a theme this season.

"Defense is something we work on daily. There's nothing really magical to it. We just emphasize it with the guys. Today, a lot of guys just want the glitz and the glamour and the points. We've just tried to sell them that if the offense isn't there, and it hasn't been in some games this season, that we really need the defense to help us win games. It's been a big point for us this year because offense has been tough to come by."

Lakes, which lost one of its leading scorers in point guard Kyle Rohr (13 ppg) when he went down last month with a season-ending knee injury, is averaging only about 40 points per game. But the Eagles are allowing only 30 points per game.

The key to the defensive success against Round Lake was the focus on Michael Green, the Panthers' leading scorer. Green scored only 8 points with Mercure face-guarding him for most of the game.

"It was hard to get open and hard to get guys to screen for me when they were face-guarding me," Green said. "It was hard for us to get any offense going. You get frustrated but you just have to play through it."

Lakes made a push in the second quarter, out-scoring Round Lake 13-3 to take a 22-11 lead into the halftime locker room.

Mercure scored 6 of his game-high 12 points in the second quarter. All while his primary focus was supposed to be on Green.

"We did a good job of limiting Green, which was big because as he goes, Round Lake goes," Snyder said. "For four years, he's been a great player for them. Jordan has had that job for three years now guarding Green. He relishes that, he likes that challenge. Jordan has those long arms and that wingspan and he seems to get his hands on so much with tips and deflections. In our hustle stats, he's all over the leader board on that."

Mercure, the quarterback of the football team, has appreciated the chance to focus on defense in basketball. He loved being given the task to face-guard Green.

"I really take the challenge to heart because it's my one big assignment for the game," Mercure said. "All I really care about is shutting him down. I've always been more of a defensive guy (in basketball) and I pride myself in limiting the other team's best player in scoring."

Green still managed to lead Round Lake in scoring with his 8 points. Dallas Soto and Ben Kuligoski each had 5 points. Kuligoski scored Round Lake's first two points of the fourth quarter with 2 free throws with 1:39 left.

Lakes got 8 points apiece out of Demetrius Michels, Colton Jewell and Michael Behrendt.

"We just struggled offensively and they did a good job on Michael (Green)," Round Lake coach Jeremy Fisher said. "But we also had opportunities. We just couldn't make layups. It was right there. But shots just didn't fall. Then Lakes built up a lead and we were chasing the rest of the game."