PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
Lake Forest boys in tie for first place
LIBERTYVILLE – The Lake Forest Scouts moved into a tie for first place in the North Suburban Conference Lake Division Saturday, upending the Libertyville Wildcats 65-49, while Stevenson was busy registering a major upset overtime win over Zion-Benton.
Both Lake Forest and Zion-Benton are now 5-2 in conference, with Zion losing its second consecutive game after starting the season 16-0. Lake Forest dealt the Zee-Bees their first loss on Tuesday.
A 17-3 second-quarter advantage propelled the Scouts to Saturday’s win against Libertyville. With the Wildcats leading 11-7 after a quarter, Lake Forest came out with a 9-2 run to start the second stanza and led by 10 at the half, 24-14, when E.J. Silver hit a trey at the horn.
Libertyville came within nine points with five minutes left in the game, but that was as close as they would get as the Scouts went to the free throw line 25 times in the final period, making 19. For the game, Lake Forest went to the line 31 times, making 23. According to Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala, it was the most free throws his team has shot in one game this season.
The second quarter surge by the Scouts featured outstanding defensive intensity that resulted in eight Libertyville turnovers. The host Wildcats could only get off six field goal attempts in the entire period. Lake Forest did an excellent job on Libertyville’s 6-foot 6-inch junior big man Jeremy Letchford in that eight-minute span. After scoring 6 points in the opening quarter, Letchford did not even get a shot in the second quarter.
The Scouts double-teamed Letchford every time he got the ball near the basket, limiting his field goal attempts for the night to seven.
“Our defensive intensity got better in the second quarter,” said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala, “and offensively we began attacking the basket more.”
Junior Matt Vogrich, as usual, led the way in scoring for Lake Forest, scoring 19 points. His running mate, Andy Timson, had 16.
Libertyville was led in scoring by Letchford, who had 16, with Aiello adding 14 and junior Paul Aynilian chipping in with 10.
Distraught and frustrated with his team losing by a large margin in the final quarter, Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil complained incessantly and bitterly to the officials about not getting more foul calls for the home team until he was finally T-d up.
Bogumil continued ranting late in the game, this time at LaScala, when the Lake Forest coach complained about a no-call on what he considered a foul by Libertyville. The Libertyville coach clearly yelled that he would be voting Lake Forest as a No. 16 seed during sectional complex seeding meetings.