Carmel Catholic closes out winning weekend by beating Lakes

Carmel Catholic has found its "A" game and won back-to-back games for the first time this season. The Corsairs outlasted Lakes 61-51 in a nonconference boys basketball game in Mundelein on Saturday afternoon.

Carmel (3-3) also beat Nazareth on the road 67-49 Friday night, a win that raised its East Suburban Catholic Conference record to 2-1.

Corsairs' senior Jalen Burton, a Bowling Green football recruit, showed some of his football speed and energy on the court by scoring 17 points Saturday. He also took advantage of a matchup in his favor.

"I saw that I had a smaller opponent on me and tried to take the ball to the hoop more," Burton said. "I just kept taking shots and had a lot of confidence."

Burton noticed the team has worked pretty hard in the shortened season.

"I feel like we were a little discombobulated (early on), because we didn't play that much together," Burton said. "Now, we're playing more together and in these close games it's knowing how to play more all together."

Burton has given consistency to a Carmel offense that has been an added plus game after game.

"He's been so steady for us this year," Carmel coach Zack Ryan said. "He's done a little bit of everything and stepped up his offensive game from where it was last year. He's just a tough kid that can get inside the paint for not being a big guy."

Carmel had control against Lakes (0-4) through the first half and built a 40-23 lead. The Eagles kept chipping away and cut the lead down to 7 in the final couple of minutes of the fourth quarter.

Bryce Moore led the Corsairs with a game-high 19 points that included a couple of throw-down dunks, and Asher Jackson added 11 points.

The Eagles were led by John Sanders with a team-high 18 points and Brandon Nava chipped in with 11.

Lakes has been close in each loss this season.

"That's what I love about these guys, they play hard and they scrap," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "It was an effort thing in the second half. We brought it close and had the opportunity to bring it closer. We just kept fighting against a really good team. Carmel was tough and they have some real good players. Our guys showed a lot of fight and a lot we can work on here going into next week. We were scrapping for the loose balls and kind of boxing out."