McGraw helps Lake Zurich pull away from Lakes
At 6 feet 5 and athletic enough to play guard, Matt McGraw might be just what's needed for a new-look Lake Zurich basketball team short on height.
"Matt's a tough matchup," Bears coach Terry Coughlin said.
McGraw showed his versatility Friday, as Lake Zurich defeated Lakes 57-42 at Richmond-Burton in the Johnsburg/Richmond-Burton Thanksgiving tournament. The senior transfer from Grant scored 12 of his 14 points and grabbed half of his 8 rebounds in the fourth quarter in helping the Bears pull away.
Guards J.R. Cison (game-high 21 points) and Will Tucker (17 points, three 3-pointers) - Lake Zurich's only returning starters - carried the offense for three quarters in helping the Bears build a 39-36 lead. McGraw then took over in the fourth, getting to the basket both off the dribble and as a result of outlet passes.
"I just saw that I had a good matchup, and I took advantage of it," McGraw said.
"We had him popping out, catching the ball at the top of the key and trying to leak him out in transition after we got the rebound," Coughlin said after his Bears improved to 2-1 heading into Saturday's tourney finale at Johnsburg. "We thought he was more athletic and would finish at the rim."
Lakes has played three tightly contested games to open the season but is 0-3. The Eagles have played the entire tourney without returning guard Leighsean Triplett, who is still recovering from MCL surgery and is not expected back until early December.
"We're right there," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "We're just fighting some stretches in games where we're there and then we let the other team extend the lead, and then we're playing that catch-up game."
Lakes was within 43-32 after Brad Bies (4 points, 7 rebounds) hit a jumper in the lane with 5:20 left in the game. But McGraw finished a drive and then stole the ball and scored on another layup. The Bears closed the game with a 14-0 run with their only other points in the quarter coming from Tucker (putback, free throw), Cison (2 free throws) and Bryan Sanborn (1 free throw).
McGraw, who was part of Grant's regular rotation last season, knows his role as a first-year Bear.
"We have a lot of really good shooters on this team," said McGraw, who shot 6 of 8 from the floor and also had 3 steals. "It's nice to be able to kick it out to them or set screens for them because I know they'll knock it down. I have a lot of confidence in them."
Austin LePage, one of McGraw's football teammates, played a huge role defensively in the fourth quarter. Lakes guard Brad Cherry scored 20 points but only 2 in the final quarter. Coughlin switched to a box-and-one defense with LePage shadowing the Eagles' top offensive player.
"We're not there with having a zone, change-of-pace defense right now," said Coughlin, who didn't get the Bears job until late spring. "That's one of our new system things that we're putting in.
"We're not ready to unleash that to the world quite yet when the bright lights are on," he added, smiling. "Box-and-one is something a lot of these kids have played, and the concepts are really simple. We needed (a defense) to have a body on (Cherry) at all times, and that was just a really easy way to do it."
Lakes shot just 3 of 13 in the fourth, while turning the ball over six times, after committing just 8 turnovers through three quarters. Of the 9 Eagles who played, only Cherry saw extensive playing-time last season.
"They threw that box-and-one at us, but even still we were getting good looks in the paint," Snyder said. "(The shots) just weren't falling toward the end. That's where we're fighting the inexperience. Guys got a little flustered when (Lake Zurich) went on a run. We just told them, 'You got to maintain. It's a game of runs.' We're learning those lessons right now."