Lakes' defense takes center stage against Grant

A big group of alums, including T.J. Edwards, now a football player at Wisconsin, showed up to cheer on the Lakes basketball team Friday night.

They really liked a fourth-quarter dunk by 6-foot-3 senior Ethan Sage, not to mention all the other baskets the Eagles got in running to a 67-52 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division victory over visiting Grant.

But it was the Lakes defense that really stole the show, especially early on.

The Eagles, with blocked shots and steals, rolled out to a 16-0 start to set just the tone they wanted. Lakes is now 7-9 overall and 3-1 in the Prairie Division.

"We came out hot," said Sage, who scored a game-high 18 points. "We really D'd them up. A lot of our guys stepped it up on defense. We came out ready to go.

"That definitely was our best (defensive effort of the season)."

The game wasn't quite so lopsided the entire way.

Grant (1-15, 0-4 Prairie) finally got going and cut its deficit to 4 points late in the second quarter. The Bulldogs, thanks to some hot 3-point shooting by reserve guard Jacob Hanlin, were down just 32-25 at halftime.

Hanlin hit 3 of his 4 three-pointers in the first half and finished with a team-high 16 points. James Mobley, normally a starter, also provided a spark off the bench. He scored 11 points.

"What I look for when I come into the game is to bring an intensity. And as soon as that happened, we started scoring some points and coming back. We just needed some intensity,' Hanlin said. "We have to be ready as soon as the ball is tipped. We can't come out slow."

Grant stayed close through the first few minutes of the third quarter, but then Lakes closed on a 10-3 run to take a 48-37 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Eagles hit 9-of-11 free throws in the fourth quarter to close out.

"It's been the story of the season where we'll get off to a good start and then kind of let up a little bit," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "We sometimes make things more interesting than needed. But we did enough to weather the storm and handled the adversity. We never let them get all the way back, which is kind of a nice sign."

Lakes also got double-figures out of guard Ben Haviland and Jordan Mercure. They finished with 14 and 11 points respectively.

Haviland and Mercure have been charged with the task of holding down the fort while starting point guard Jake Balliu recovers from a severe ankle sprain.

Meanwhile, Grant coach Wayne Bosworth has done some shifting around with his own lineup, trying whatever he can to find a workable combination. He started three sophomores against Lakes.

"We just didn't play hard early on. We were lacking intensity," Bosworth said. "I don't how long we can talk about the inexperience factor and being young. At some point, we have to get over that.

"We need someone to grab the bull by the horns and direct what we need, on the court. We don't have that. We don't have a trust factor yet and we don't have the chemistry we need right now."