Lake Forest High's boys basketball team rallied to edge visiting Lake Forest Academy an exciting 44-43 non-conference contest on Tuesday, but the Scouts weren't the only victors.
The entire Lake Forest community came up winners, as the gym was packed to witness history -- the first contest between the schools in a major sport in several decades.
It was a contest that the smaller, private school, LFA, was trying to arrange for several years.
"(LFA) had been contacting us for a few years, and when we finally had an opening this season, we thought it would be a good idea for two good teams to play each other," said Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala.
With several international players, LFA -- a non-Illinois High School Association program -- has been playing a national schedule for the past several seasons, so Tuesday's contest wasn't as big for the players as it was for the community, stated LFA coach Matt Vaughn.
"We don't have that many Lake Forest kids on our team, but we do at our school, so it was pretty big for them and our community and parents," he said. "It was good to finally get a chance to come over here in front of a full gym to play them."
The contest didn't disappoint, as Lake Forest (12-3) rallied from a 25-12 halftime deficit to pull out the win.
The Scouts made only 2 of 23 field-goal attempts in the first two quarters -- including 0-12 from beyond the 3-point arc.
If LFA (6-4) had made more than 4 of 11 free throws in the first half, the lead would have been larger.
"Free throws killed us," said Vaughn. "A lot of the free throws we missed in the first half were on the front end of 1-and-1's. If we made some of those, we might have had a 17- or 18- point lead at halftime, and then Lake Forest couldn't have gone to a zone in the second half."
The Scouts used a zone defense at times in the final two quarters to thwart LFA's dominating size -- which included 6-foot-10 Australian Angus Brandt (14 points, 11 rebounds) and 6-9 Todd Zafirovski (9 points, 9 rebounds), a Lake Forest native.
"We stood around a lot against the zone, and we settled for some bad shots," said Vaughn.
After missing its first 14 3-point attempts, consecutive treys by Mitch Hopfinger (15 points) and Matt Vogrich (16 points) to start the fourth quarter helped Lake Forest cut the lead 38-34.
Another Hopfinger 3-pointer with 4:23 remaining gave the Scouts their first lead of the game at 40-38. It was a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Brandt scored LFA's final four points with under a minute to play to help the Caxys get within two points at 44-42.
Both sides proceeded to miss free throws, before LFA's David Smith sank one of two charity tossed with five seconds remaining to cut the lead to 44-43.
After a missed free throw by the Scouts, the Caxys had one final opportunity, but a halfcourt shot by Markus Rodgers bounced off the backboard.
"It wasn't pretty for us, especially in the first half, but we showed more patience in the second half and made the extra pass to get better looks," said LaScala.
LAKE FOREST 44, LFA 43
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