Top-notch defense helps top seed Lake Zurich past Hoffman Estates

If you'd like to see a display of a well-oiled motion offense, aggressive rebounding and relentless defense, then come by Hoffman Estates High School on Friday night to see Lake Zurich's boys varsity basketball team play for the Class 4A regional championship.

And a spot in its own sectional next week.

The Bears (23-5) looked every bit the sectional's No. 1 seed Tuesday night, putting on a defensive clinic in pulling away from the stubborn hosts for a 53-36 win. The Bears will next meet the winner of Wednesday's Highland Park-Warren matchup.

By its own admission, Lake Zurich did not have its best night on offense against the fired-up Hawks (11-14), playing in front of their home crowd. But the Bears turned it up when they had to, especially at the end of the first and second quarters.

Junior point guard J.R. Cison (13 points) hit a 3-pointer off a scramble for a loose ball to close period one to break a 9-9 tie. Then he sparked a 7-point closing run in period two, highlighted by one of Will Tucker's four 3s a quarter-closing nifty feed to center Peter DiCerbo to complete a 7-0 run for a 25-14 halftime lead in what had seemed to that point to be a very close game.

"At the end of the first half, that was a really huge play," Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said of the Cison assist to DiCerbo.

Hoffman Estates only got the lead under 10 again once, on a Rudra Patel (12 points) steal and court-length driving layup. Cison and then Ryan Kutsor took turns running the offense on top, patiently killing clock and extending the lead from the free throw lin. Defensively, the Bears forced nearly twice as many turnovers (11) as they committed (6).

"We've been scouting them since (last week)," Cison said of Hoffman's usual very-good 3-point shooters - Adrian Punzalan, Marquez Woodard and Marshall Davis. They were limited to just three 3s, and Hoffman as a team to 5-for-14 from long range. Patel did the damage off the bench, scoring 12 on 5-for-10 shooting and risk-taking defense to set up opportunities.

Hoffman Estates' inability to knock down enough shots that proved to be its undoing, because the Hawks played pretty well on defense. They made Kutsor (12) work for his points and eventually figured a way to get the ball out of Cison's hands, which might as well be daggers the way he shoots and feeds.

"We need to shoot a little better," Cison said.

So did Hoffman Estates. But Hawks coach Luke Yanule knew that giving up a dozen offensive rebounds in the first half allowed Lake Zurich too many opportunities to finally break the game open. And they never got a handle on Cison's ability to penetrate, dish or create his own shot.

"He's got the ball on a string," said Yanule, who praised his own senior starters - Punzalan, Davis, James Allen and Brendan Thompson - for their hustle and dedication.

Pitcher said he'd like to see the ball go in the basket more often, but until then, he'll be happy to rely on his team's sticky defense.

"We've had some really good defensive performances this year," Pitcher said.