advertisement

Wauconda loses but still wins big opportunity

Wauconda lost for the first time this season Friday night but still found itself headed to the championship game of the Richmond-Burton/Johnsburg Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament.

Two shots in the final three seconds fell short and so did the Bulldogs 71-70 to the host Rockets at Lou Ramirez Gymnasium in Richmond. But Wauconda held the fewest points allowed tiebreaker at 162 as it finished pool play at 2-1 with R-B (173) and Crystal Lake South (175).

So, the Bulldogs get a shot at Zion-Benton (3-0) and 6-foot-5 Tennessee recruit Admiral Schofield in the title game at 7 p.m. Saturday at Johnsburg.

"I can't wait because I finally get to play someone who is going Division I," said Wauconda junior Zac Lahrman, who had a game-high 19 points and 8 rebounds and made a key defensive play in the final minute.

"We're going to see more pressure from them," said Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager. "They're going to come at us and we'll have to handle the pressure again. These are good games to have early in the season."

R-B's 1-2-2 ball press led to 31 points off 26 Wauconda turnovers.

"We were trying to speed it up too much when we had to slow it down," Lahrman said.

"We kept shooting ourselves in the foot by trying to dribble through three people," Luetschwager said. "R-B's pressure was real solid and it gave us some problems.

"Our younger guards are trying to feel their way through it. Their pressure gave us some issues."

Wauconda used a 17-2 tear to take a 46-39 lead 1:35 after halftime. But five miscues fueled an 11-2 spurt that put R-B up 50-48.

Six turnovers to start the fourth quarter helped R-B turn a 3-point deficit into a 59-57 lead. Lahrman's driving 3-point play on the baseline put Wauconda up for the last time at 60-59 with 5:22 left.

The Bulldogs' final 3 turnovers sparked R-B to a 64-60 lead.

"We're young but we've got some speed and length," said R-B coach Brandon Creason of his team which starts only one senior and three sophomores. "The first two games, especially the first game, we didn't rotate very well and we weren't very aggressive. I thought tonight we showed a little more of what we're capable of."

R-B went ahead to stay when 6-9 sophomore Joey St. Pierre (15 points, 6 rebounds) hit 2 free throws at 3:18 and Reggie Banks found Jake Kaufman (14 points) in the corner for a 3 and 69-64 lead at 2:27. Lahrman answered with 4 straight free throws to finish 8-for-8 in his third straight game in double figures.

"He was very active again tonight like the other two nights," Luetschwager said. "He was able to get a couple of steals for us and hit some monster free throws that kept us in the game."

Wauconda finished 28-for-32 on free throws as Bryan Nee hit two to set the final score with 56 seconds left after a steal by Ricky Sidlowski (13 points, 5 rebounds). Lahrman then poked away the ball on a trap near midcourt and his diving second effort forced a held ball that gave his team possession.

Lahrman missed a jumper but a traveling violation with 16.6 seconds left gave the Bulldogs one more chance. They called a timeout with 5.6 seconds left but a contested shot by Nee and a tip-in try at the buzzer by 6-7 Ben Carlson (15 points, 10 rebounds) fell short.

"We expected something out of a double screen up top and I thought we covered it really well," Creason said.

"I give our kids a lot of credit to fight through all that stuff and not hang their heads," Luetschwager said of a second-quarter deficit as large as 8 points. "We had opportunities to fold and the kids never took that opportunity."

Now the Bulldogs get a big one tonight against one of the top programs in Lake County.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.