Gillespie, Warren find their groove
By the time warm-ups were done, Eric Gillespie was more than just warm.
The Warren guard was hot, feeling as if he could make any shot.
In fact, Gillespie nearly did Friday night, hitting multiple shots, including fade-away 3-pointers, while falling to the ground and while sometimes even being fouled.
“Some of those were tough to make,” Gillespie said. “It’s practice, I guess.”
Gillespie scored a team-high 19 points on four 3-pointers to lead Warren to a 59-49 North Suburban Conference Lake Division victory over visiting Lake Zurich.
The Blue Devils improved to 9-6 on the season and 3-3 in the division while Lake Zurich dropped to 8-7 overall and 2-3 in the Lake.
“Eric is the one guy I don’t even talk to about shot selection,” Warren coach Ryan Webber said of Gillespie. “I just let him go because he’s my guy. He just knows what he’s doing. As long as it’s not a total circus shot, I’m fine with it.”
The Blue Devils built a 10-point lead by the end of the first-quarter, thanks in part to two 3-pointers by Gillespie and a 3-pointer at the buzzer by backcourt mate Adrian Deere. Deere hit another buzzer-beating 3-pointer just before halftime to keep Warren up by 9 points, 33-24.
But Lake Zurich was about to hit some big-time shots of its own.
The Bears, particularly junior guard Mike Travlos, came out of halftime and seemingly couldn’t miss. Travlos connected on 6-of-9 shots and Lake Zurich was 8-of-14 from the field overall to cut its deficit to just 2 points (46-44) by the end of the third.
“I wanted to keep shooting, but I wanted to get everyone else involved, too,” Travlos said. “It’s tough that we were really hot in the third quarter and then died off in the fourth. That just happens sometimes.”
After shooting so well in the third, Lake Zurich looked like a different team in the fourth quarter, missing on all but two of its 13 field goal attempts. And the second make didn’t even come until the final 30 seconds, long after the outcome was decided.
“I don’t think we played a whole lot different or got lower percentage shots in the fourth quarter, I just think they (the shots) didn’t fall,” Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said. “We were just cold in the fourth and we couldn’t stay with them.”
Travlos, who scored 15 points in the third but went 0-for-2 in the fourth quarter, finished with 22 points. He was the only player for Lake Zurich to finish in double-figures.
Teammates Corey Helgeson and Brad Kruse added 9 and 8 points respectively.
For Warren, Deere rolled up 18 points on three 3-pointers while James Betori added 12 points, including two 3-pointers.
“I just like the direction we’re going,” Webber said. “Lake Zurich is a high-energy team and they score the ball really well and for us to hold them to (49 points), I thought our defense was active. And even though Travlos scored really well in the third quarter, our kids really battled.”