Kutsor combusts, and Lake Zurich singes Libertyville

Ryan Kutsor called it "ridiculously hot."

Lake Zurich's senior guard was talking about the first-half performance of Libertyville senior guard Drew Peterson, who sizzles and burns opponents a lot.

But then a funny thing happened during Saturday night's North Suburban Conference basketball game at Lake Zurich.

Kutsor pulled a "Drew Peterson." He got ridiculously hot. He took over, hitting 3-pointers like they were layups, making plays at both ends and, ultimately, leading his team to victory. Down 11 points at halftime, Lake Zurich rallied behind the play of Kutsor to stun Libertyville 57-55.

Kutsor scored 14 of his game-high 27 points in the third quarter. He also had 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. He shot 5 of 5 from the floor in the third, draining four of his six 3-pointers.

"I haven't been that hot in a long time," said Kutsor, who was coming off a season-best 24-point effort against Geneva in the title game of Lake Zurich's MKL Classic. "That was fun. I got rolling a little bit and started hitting some shots."

A buzzer-beating loss to Stevenson is the only defeat in the last 10 games for Lake Zurich (16-5, 3-3). Coupled with Warren's win over Zion-Benton, Libertyville (10-7, 4-2) fell out of first place in the NSC, a game back of Warren.

Peterson led Libertyville with 24 points, and on the strength of his 18 points (four 3-pointers) and Josh Steinhaus' 11, the Wildcats enjoyed a 38-27 lead at halftime. But Kutsor sank a right-wing 3-pointer in the first 34 seconds of the second half, and he was just heating up.

Peterson answered with a long jumper off an inbounds pass, before Peter DiCerbo's putback started a 10-0 run for the Bears. Kutsor's second 3 in 27 seconds, after he swatted a shot at the other end, capped the run. It gave Lake Zurich its first lead, 41-40, with 4:26 left in the third.

"We talked at half that (Lake Zurich) was going to come out with a lot of energy, and we need to match that if not get above their energy level," Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski said. "We didn't. They out-executed us in the third quarter, and Kutsor ignited it."

When Kutsor splashed a pullup 3-pointer at the buzzer, Lake Zurich had a 51-46 lead entering the fourth.

"It was something special," Bears coach Billy Pitcher said of Kutsor's third-quarter performance. "He's such a versatile player, and when he gets hot like that, he's really a hard guard because you get up on him and he can make moves, and he's shifty."

Lake Zurich outscored Libertyville 24-8 in the third, with Will Tucker also knocking down a 3.

"Kutsor's a great player," said Libertyville's Chase Eyre, who had 9 points (three 3-pointers) and 9 rebounds. "There were a couple of closeouts we had, especially me, on some shooters that we knew could get hot really quickly. We had a couple of lapses on defenses, and that created a run for them that they just extended."

After Peterson's 7-of-10 shooting in the first half, Pitcher put DiCerbo on the Libertyville star. Peterson scored only 6 points in the second half, going 3 of 8 from the floor (0 of 2 from three-point range). Joe Heffernan picked up 3 fouls defending Peterson in the first half.

"Maybe it was a mistake not starting (DiCerbo) on (Peterson)," Pitcher said. "But it's near impossible to guard Drew Peterson all game long and shut him down. Who knows? If Pete starts out the game on him, maybe he's got 3 fouls, he's out of the game, and it's a different story."

"We thought our defense was pretty good in the first half," Kutsor said. "We were trying to double a little more on (Peterson in the second half)."

Down 56-55, Libertyville called timeout with 11.2 seconds in the game after rebounding a missed free throw by Lake Zurich. The Wildcats settled for a Travis Clark 3-pointer from the top of the key in the closing seconds. When DiCerbo and Heffernan doubled down on Peterson, Steinhaus, who shot 4 of 4 (three 3-pointers) in the first half but didn't take a shot in the second half, dished to Clark (4 points). Clark's shot was just off target and the ball rolled out of bounds.

"We had Travis and (Brandon) Simberg on that side of the floor, so we had guys who can hit the 3 on that side," Zyrkowski said. "We'll take a wide-open look."

JR Cison's free throw with 1.3 seconds on the clock finished the scoring, sealing Lake Zurich's fifth win in a row.

Heffernan had what Pitcher called a "huge game," as the senior scored 8 points, collected 3 steals and took 2 charges. Heffernan's second 3-pointer off a Kutsor pass with 2:27 left in the fourth extended Lake Zurich's lead to 56-52. DiCerbo finished with 11 points.

"We've got some of the toughest kids I've ever coached," Pitcher said. "And Peter DiCerbo and Joe Heffernan are right up there on the list."