Lake Zurich bounces back, downs Cary-Grove

After a slow start against Rolling Meadows on Thursday, the Lake Zurich girls basketball team turned the tables on Friday and started fast.

The Bears opened up with a 17-6 lead by the end of the first quarter and used that momentum to run away with a 50-38 victory over visiting Cary-Grove in the Turkey Thriller.

Lake Zurich is now 2-1 in the tournament, with its other win against Johnsburg and the loss to a Rolling Meadows team that rushed out to an early 16-point lead.

"Against Rolling Meadows, we kind of played the way they wanted us to play and tonight we played the way we wanted to play," said Lake Zurich junior guard Ella Gilbertson, who led Lake Zurich with a game-high 18 points. "(Thursday), we got down early, we had a lot of turnovers. This game, we settled ourselves down and didn't have as many turnovers."

Lake Zurich had 27 turnovers against Rolling Meadows, but only 12 turnovers against Cary-Grove.

"(Thursday), we were down 28-12 early but then we played pretty well in the second half and I think we continued that early today," Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said. "The Rolling Meadows game was the first time this season we saw a lot of pressure. We handled that much better today."

Gilbertson and senior forward Maddy Piggott (8 points) combined for 10 of the Bears' 17 first-quarter points. Gilbertson has upped her game since last year to be more of a leader now that she's an upperclassman.

"We've had a bunch of (college) coaches come to watch Ella during open gyms and they've been asking how she has changed since last year," Bennett said. "She was more of a role player as a freshman and sophomore because we had older kids who are now playing college basketball, and now it's her turn to step up and everyone's asking that question, 'Is she that kid who can step up?' And you can see that she is. She had 21 points against Rolling Meadows, 18 tonight and she's the kind of kid who can make plays when she wants to. She's more aggressive, more confident and she's got a great shot."

Lake Zurich, which also got 11 points from freshman point guard Alayna Soukup, was up 24-16 at halftime. Cary-Grove again got the deficit to 8 points in the third quarter, but that's the smallest the margin ever got.

The Trojans, who dropped to 0-3, were feeling the absence of standout guard Maddie Jannusch, who is in the final stages of her recovery from offseason shoulder surgery. She was an all-conference player last year who can play the point or in the post, and should be back within the next few days.

"We're still trying to find our way, and it's tough without Maddie," Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert said. "We're trying to figure out with 14 kids on the team how to get things done.

"We're seeing a lot of good things from people, but we've got to figure out who is that starting five, who comes off the bench. We battled tonight, we just got down too far at the beginning of this game. We got it down to 8, but just couldn't get over the hump."

Senior guard Taylor Tomasiewicz led Cary-Grove with a team-high 12 points. She came off the bench against Lake Zurich but started the Trojans' first two games.

"We've just been experimenting (with the lineup)," Saffert said. "But Taylor is someone who can score consistently for us. She did in the first game for us and she helped us get back into this game."