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Hughes, Lundtveit and Warren pass test at Lake Zurich

A sharpshooter didn't miss.

Warren guard Jordyn Hughes hit nothing but ... hands. The hands of 6-foot-1 teammate Dana Lundtveit.

Lundtveit, left unguarded momentarily under the basket as Lake Zurich defenders hustled toward Hughes, held both of her hands out. Hughes hit her with a bounce pass on the baseline, and Lundtveit deposited the ball in the basket with four seconds left.

"I saw Jordyn was getting guarded by like three people," Lundtveit said. "My girl ran and got her, so I saw (the pass) was coming. It was a little nerve-wracking, but I put it in, so I'm happy about that."

When Lake Zurich's Ella Gilbertson missed a tough, running shot at the buzzer, visiting Warren had escaped with a 32-31 win Tuesday night. The Blue Devils had squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.

The game was part of Lake Zurich's ExamJamm but counted in the North Suburban Conference standings. It was a big win for Warren (7-4, 4-1), which had lost to Lake Forest last Friday night. Lake Zurich (7-4, 4-1) had its five-game winning streak snapped.

The low-scoring, tight game didn't surprise Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett, who expects the NSC to be a four-team battle all season long among his Bears, Warren, Stevenson and Lake Forest.

"That's what we're going to get," Bennett said. "You have four teams that are all very equal."

Warren boasts two players in Hughes and Kaylen Dickson who are among the NSC's best. The Wake Forest-bound Dickson finished with a game-high 10 points (two 3-pointers), 7 rebounds, 5 blocks and 3 steals. The Eastern Illinois-bound Hughes had 6 points (two 3s), 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

"You focus so much on those two," Bennett said. "(At the end), you figure one of them is going to shoot it. (Hughes) did a great job of making a little bounce pass there."

Dickson scooped in a bad-angle shot off the backboard to beat the third-quarter buzzer, stretching Warren's lead to 26-19. When Lundtveit hit the first of 2 free throws with 4:59 left in the fourth, the Blue Devils were up 29-19.

But then Lake Zurich, which made just 6 of 28 shots against Warren's zone through three quarters, finally heated up. Maddy Piggott (5 points, 7 rebounds) scored on a putback, and back-to-back buckets from McKenna Zobel (6 points, 5 rebounds) got the Bears within 29-25 with three minutes to go.

"At halftime, we were like, 'We're not playing as good as we can. We have to play more physical than them,' " said Gilbertson, who scored a team-high 8 points. (In the second half), we kept running different plays, trying to see which one worked the best. At the end, we finally found the high-low, getting (the ball) into the middle and then kicking it out."

Margueret Spear hit a 3-pointer to trim Lake Zurich's deficit to 30-28 with one minute left. Gilbertson followed with a clutch 3 of her own with 26 seconds to go, giving the Bears their first lead of the game.

"It was a game of runs, and when they had their runs, we stayed composed," said Lake Zurich guard Grace Kinsey, who finished with 7 points and 5 rebounds. "In the end, we started to knock down a couple of more shots that didn't fall early in the game."

Down one, Warren called timeout with 10.7 seconds on the clock. As was the case all game, the Blue Devils remained calm with the ball in their possession, and it paid off with Lundtveit (7 points, 6 rebounds) finishing Hughes' feed.

"Even down the stretch, compared to our last couple of games, I thought we played with a lot more composure," Warren coach John Stanczykiewicz said. "I thought the shots we took, for the most part, were within the offense. Kay and Jordyn took shots that were in the flow. They didn't force anything."

That figures to be a key for Warren again when it finds itself in another low-scoring game against an NSC contender.

"Lake Zurich is a really good team," Stanczykiewicz said. "They're big, they make you guard inside, and they have kids that can shoot outside. They present quite a few challenges. I'm proud that our kids played really good defense and did the best they could to take away (Lake Zurich's) inside game."

Images: Lake Zurich vs. Warren girls basketball

  Lake Zurich forward Maddy Piggott has her shot blocked by Warren forward Dana Lundtveidt, right, with help from guard Kaylen Dickson at Lake Zurich on Tuesday. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Warren guard Kaylen Dickson, left, and Lake Zurich forward McKenna Zobel battle for the ball at Lake Zurich on Tuesday. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
  Lake Zurich guard Anna Biergans drives around Warren guard Jataia Harris at Lake Zurich on Tuesday. Gilbert R. Boucher II/gboucher@dailyherald.com
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