Looks like a win for Travlos, Lake Zurich

Lake Zurich senior Mike Travlos simply couldn't help himself.

As he drove toward the basket in the Bears' second round game of the Grant Thanksgiving Tournament, he casually glanced at the scoreboard to see he was just shy of a career high in points. Indeed, that magic number of 30 was just calling out to him.

"To be honest, I did look," Travlos said. "I have never broken 30 before, and I kind of wanted it."

Style points was about the only thing missing for the Bears.

Travlos ended up tying his career-best with 29 points to lead Lake Zurich to an impressive 61-48 win over North Chicago Tuesday night.

"I thought Mike did a nice job of dealing it tonight, and when it wasn't there he did a good job of finding our other guys," said Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher.

Lake Zurich (2-0) assumed control early in the third quarter after a sluggish start saw the Bears trail by as many as 7 in the first quarter.

But a quick 7-0 run to end the first half and 10 third-quarter points from Travlos blew the game wide open for the Bears.

"North Chicago plays a similar type of game to that of Waukegan, who we played (Monday)," said Travlos, who scored 16 points in the second half, while the Warhawks managed only 19 second-half points. "They came out in a zone and we didn't adjust right away - but when we did, we got rolling."

When Travlos wasn't scoring, the inside game of senior Will McClaughry was a key element to the Bears' success. He had a strong night on both ends of the floor with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 6 blocked shots.

"The second and third quarters were really great," Pitcher said. "Will really stepped up there at the end of the second quarter."

McClaughry scored the last 7 Bears points before half as Lake Zurich took the lead for good at 30-29 at the break. A 16-5 third quarter surplus in favor of Lake Zurich broke the game open for the Bears as North Chicago went more than five minutes without a basket.

The Warhawks put together a brief run early in the fourth quarter, cutting the margin to 57-44 with 2:24 left, but a bucket by McClaughry on one end and a block on the other sealed the win for the Bears.

North Chicago, which is 0-2 for the first time since 2006, was led in scoring by Courtez Dixon and Kevin Burns with 15 points each.