Gunther's effort not enough for Lakes vs. Deerfield

Tylor Gunther is no stranger when it comes to shooting beyond the arc. He's been doing it for the last few years and has had some big games dropping in the 3-pointers for Lakes' boys basketball team.

This being his senior year, Gunther went out and poured in more than enough 3-pointers and set the single-season record for the Eagles with a total of 64 of them, breaking the old mark of 56 recently against Grayslake North.

He stepped up with four more and a team-high 12 points, but needed a lot more to keep the Eagles close to Deerfield on Wednesday night.

"(Deerfield) was a tough team, tall athletic and they play together," Gunther said. "We came out slow and played with pride. We do have a record board in our gym and I've been looking at since sophomore year. It's something I wanted to do in my final year. But, obviously, you want to win a regional and go far."

However on Wednesday, fifth-seeded Deerfield got past No. 12 Lakes 66-47 in the Class 3A regional semifinal in Deerfield.

The Warriors (20-10) will take on No. 4 Carmel Catholic (19-13) for the regional final Friday at 7 p.m. at Deerfield.

"I thought our first quarter was really good, it was a good product of putting in four days of really good practice leading up to this," Deerfield coach Dan McKendrick said. "I think our scout group gave us a great look of what we would see out of Lakes. The kids were prepared and it didn't hurt that Brandon (Lieb) and Walt (Mattingly) were ready to go into it on both offense and defense."

The Warriors' Mattingly led the way with a game-high 21 points and 4 rebounds and Lieb added a double-double with 15 points and 10 boards as well as 4 blocked shots."

Deerfield started the game with 17 unanswered points until the Eagles' Jake Sanders made a couple of free throws with 3:20 left in the first quarter.

The Warriors led 21-9 by the end of the quarter.

Lakes (9-22) tried to settle down in the second and tried to cut into the lead, but Deerfield kept extending its margin and held a 41-20 advantage by the break.

"The way we fought throughout the whole game, that's the characteristic of this group," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "Regardless of getting down 17-0, we didn't fold it in and kept fighting down to the last possession. That's what this group is all about. Wins and losses aside, this group showed fight throughout the whole season and that's what we wanted to see out of them. I expect these guys will show that in the future, because they show that fight. It's never fun to lose that last one. At least they can hold their heads high with the effort they showed for four quarters."