Libertyville distances itself from Carmel
Merely 1½ miles on Route 176 separate Libertyville (5-3, 1-0) and Carmel (3-5, 0-3) high schools.
Just five minutes and two stop lights stand between them. They are in different conferences - Libertyville in the North Suburban and Carmel in the East Suburban Catholic Conference - but if you really wanted to, you could walk from one school to another.
Thursday night's game, however, was not as close, with Libertyville cruising to a 52-41 home victory.
Senior forward Aidyn Boone opened up scoring with a three-pointer after the Wildcats took a charge on the Corsairs first trip down court.
"Booooooooone," the home Libertyville crowd howled. "One! Two! Three!"
Libertyville finished the game with 7 three-pointers, and Carmel made 8.
"Every time we play Carmel, they're right down the road, you expect a game of good shooting and confidence because these players all know each other," said Libertyville head coach Brian Zyrkowski. "They all live close by, and people are a little bit more relaxed in this kind of game"
On the other end, the Wildcats were able to stifle the Corsairs with a high-pressure man-to-man defense while spreading out the scoring on offense. Libertyville ended the night with five scorers above 6 points including three players in double digits.
With a couple of threes from Boone and Huber and an and-1 play by senior forward Cole Bonder, the Wildcats led by 18 after three.
Boone finished with 14, Bonder had 11, and freshman guard Blaise Lavista ended with 10. For Carmel, junior forward Jacob Chajet led the way with 12 points.
"I thought Aidyn Boone and Cole did a great job in the post for us tonight," Zyrkowski said. "That was important, establishing the post to get us that lead. And then Blaise Lavista, our freshman who had the task of guarding their best player ... did a great job. He got three or four three steals in a row."