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Edwards, Lake Forest stop Warren

There was no Warren win for the second straight night. But maybe there was a small victory for large Declan O'Connor.

Sure, Lake Forest star Lorenzo Edwards played the entire second half of Saturday's North Suburban Lake game on a sprained left ankle. And, yes, the visiting Scouts won 47-39 to keep alive their title hopes in the division, while officially ending the Blue Devils'. But the junior O'Connor played creditably against Edwards in the battle of 6-foot-7 talents.

The win kept Lake Forest (13-8, 6-4) two games behind first-place Stevenson, with the Scouts' final two division games both against last-place Mundelein. Warren (10-14, 5-6) wraps up division play against Lake Zurich.

"He's so strong, he can jump and he's really athletic," O'Connor, a varsity rookie, said of Edwards, whose latest scholarship offers are from St. Louis and Furman. "It's tough to play against him. He did well. I thought I did well against him too. It was a tough game."

Edwards finished with a game-high 15 points, 9 rebounds and 6 blocked shots. While the 215-pound senior has put up bigger numbers, he played at less than full strength after injuring his ankle late in the opening half. Edwards got his ankle taped at halftime, then started the second half. He grabbed only 1 rebound in the final two quarters but scored 7 points, including a 3-pointer.

"After that injury, he didn't take it to the basket really," O'Connor said. "He settled for his jump shot a lot more, and I think that helped my defense a lot too."

"Obviously, it doesn't feel normal," Edwards said of his ankle. "But I just had to battle through it."

During one fourth-quarter sequence, Edwards blocked a pair of O'Connor shots just seconds apart, then finished a layup in transition to pull Lake Forest even at 33-33 with 5:05 left.

O'Connor had his moments too. He twice forced turnovers against Edwards in the fourth, once tipping the ball away to a teammate and the other time swiping the ball himself.

O'Connor led Warren with 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting.

"I know (Edwards) got dinged up," Blue Devils coach Jon Jasnoch said. "Declan had a lot of help from his teammates, but he took on a pretty big challenge tonight, and he scored some too."

Warren was up 37-33 midway through the fourth, but Lake Forest's Reed Thomas scored on a putback, was fouled and made the free throw with 3:54 left. The three-point play started a 14-2 run that included Edwards' reverse layup that broke a 37-37 tie with 3:18 to go.

Thomas, a 6-4 junior, also made both ends of a 1 and 1 with 1:28 left. He finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds (4 offensive) coming off the bench.

"He gave us a huge spark," said coach Phil LaScala, whose Scouts scored 16 points off offensive rebounds and went 8 of 10 from the line in the fourth.

After Warren's Juwan Perry (11 points) scored with 4:17 left, the Blue Devils didn't score again until O'Connor sank a layup in the final seconds. Lake Forest switched from a man-to-man defense to a 1-3-1 zone in the fourth, and Warren struggled against it.

"It's something we've been working on a little bit more," LaScala said. "We knew our guys were really tired from (Friday) night (a loss to Stevenson). We thought, 'They got tired legs too from (Friday) night (vs. Lake Zurich). Maybe we can get them out of rhythm.' Luckily, it did."

Edwards even credited the Scouts' fourth-quarter zone for winning the game.

"We just stalled out against it," Jasnoch said. "We didn't move the ball."

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