Warren edges Barrington

One tournament, one trophy for new Warren boys basketball coach Ryan Webber.

The Blue Devils left Mundelein on Saturday night with the consolation-championship trophy of the tourney that they co-hosted.

Warren held off Barrington 52-50, receiving 13 points from all-tournament pick Adrian Deere and 9 apiece from Aarius Austin and Dre Von Hill, while improving to 3-2.

“I think our biggest hurdle right now with this group, in the infancy of our season and with a lot of newcomers and inexperience, is that we are just not ready to sustain max effort for long stretches,” said Webber, who took a team that graduated all five starters. “That’s going to be a thing that we stress all week — how hard we have to play every possession.”

Warren trailed Barrington 14-10 after one quarter, 23-21 at halftime and 34-32 after three. The Blue Devils outscored the Broncos 20-16 in the final quarter.

All-tournament pick Zach Bart led Barrington with 20 points. Scott Nelson had 8, including a 3-pointer.

“Barrington is a really solid basketball team,” Webber said. “They shoot the ball well, they got a really good post player (Bart), and they got a really good coach (Bryan Tucker). We knew it was going to be a game. They play the game the right way.”

Deere, a 6-3 junior forward and varsity rookie, scored in double figures in each of Warren’s five games, averaging 13.8 points. He started the Blue Devils’ last four contests. They won three of those games, after a season-opening loss to Waukegan.

“I think we have a fire about us that a lot of teams don’t have,” Deere said. “Every team that we’ve played since last year, we get (their) best effort. So we got to go harder and harder. I think that’s what we did, even though we didn’t win the whole thing.”

Webber is learning that his team has ability.

“I just like that we show flashes of being good,” he said. “When our skill players — Aarias Austin, Adrian Deere, Dre Hill, Eric Gillespie — play energetic and athletic, they show flashes where their talent is really on display. When they play on their heels and play passive and let things come to them, they let their talents stay in their pockets.”

— Joe Aguilar

Lakes 71, Waukegan 50: At Mundelein, the Eagles concluded tournament play with a victory, as Direll Clark scored 20 points.

Jake Kohler and Justin Bergeron added 15 and 13 points, respectively, for Lakes (3-2). The Eagles led 17-13 after one quarter, extended their advantage to 40-25 by halftime and took a 58-35 lead into the fourth.

Lake Zurich 42, Marmion 33: At West Chicago, the Bears wrapped up the tournament on a high note, leading the entire game, including 11-8 after one quarter, 19-18 at halftime and 32-29 after three.

Will McClaughry led Lake Zurich with 12 points, while Jeff Zahery had 9 on three 3-pointers, Mike Travlos chipped in 6 points for the Bears.

McClaughry also grabbed 11 rebounds, including 5 on the offensive glass.

“Will was just a warrior on the boards,” said coach Billy Pitcher, whose Bears finished 3-2 in the tournament.

McClaughry became the sixth different Lake Zurich player to score in double figures in the tourney.

“We have been emphasizing defense first, and today we really stepped up,” Pitcher said. “I’m proud of how hard we played and our effort. We couldn’t hit from the outside today, but we didn’t give up and worked for second shots.”

Ryan Roach had 4 points and 5 assists and was named to the all-tournament team for Lake Zurich.

“Our goal was to get at least three wins here and we accomplished that,” Pitcher said. “Marmion is a good team. They took Geneva (5-0 in the tournament) to the buzzer. They’re really big and physical, so this was a hard-fought and great win for us. With 3 sophs in our rotation, our young guys learned how hard we have to play and how physical varsity basketball is.”

Freeport 57, Wauconda 50: At Johnsburg, the Bulldogs dropped an overtime decision for the second time in three games.

Kodey Thomas’ 23 points bettered his career best of 21 set the previous night for Wauconda, but the Bulldogs got outscored 15-8 in OT in dropping the battle of third-place teams in the tournament.

Austin Swenson added 17 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists for Wauconda (1-3), which took a 32-25 lead into the fourth quarter before being outscored 17-10 to allow the Pretzels to force the extra session. Ricky Sidlowski grabbed 8 rebounds for the Bulldogs, while Devon King contributed 5 blocks, 5 rebounds and 4 points. Keith Blomberg dished out 5 assists.