Lake Forest finishes off perfect run at Warren
A perfect winning percentage beats a perfect free-throw percentage.
Lake Forest's girls basketball team prefers winning tournament championships with the former. So a year after capturing the Warren Blue Devil Classic thanks to their free-throw percentage (which wasn't perfect), the Scouts successfully defended their title in Gurnee by the preferred way.
They beat everybody, soundly.
Lake Forest led Grayslake Central by as many as 18 points on Saturday before winning 41-34 in the tourney finale. The Scouts lost their final tournament game last year to Warren but won the title thanks to free-throw percentage.
"I like this better," said Lake Forest coach Kyle Wilhelm, smiling. "I like winning - and winning."
Who wants to do math on winter break?
"I was just more worried about winning the game," Lake Forest 6-foot-2 junior guard Halle Douglass said after totaling game bests of 23 points and 10 rebounds. "I wanted to win the tournament (outright), but I think it was important (to focus on), 'If we win the game, we win the tournament.' "
Lake Forest (15-4), which stretched its winning streak to eight games, went 5-0 in the tournament. The Scouts won twice by 28 points (Warren, Deerfield) and twice by 11 points (Quincy Senior, Carmel), before facing Grayslake Central, which suffered its first tournament loss a day earlier to Quincy.
For the second day in a row, the Rams (13-6, 3-2 tourney) got off to a slow start. They committed 7 turnovers in the opening quarter in spotting the Scouts a 14-9 lead.
Grayslake Central's Kate Bullman (11 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks) picked up her second foul in the final minute of the first quarter, and by the time she returned to the court with just less than two minutes to go before halftime, Lake Forest had used an 11-2 run to go up 23-11. Grace Tirzmalis scored twice inside and finished a fastbreak pass from Douglass, who also hit one of her three 3-pointers during the run.
"It started off really slow in the second quarter," Wilhelm said. "We couldn't get anything going. Once we did, we picked up the pressure and got out in transition. I think we're best when our defense is going really well and we can get out in transition. Halle sees the floor really well, and we have a lot of players who can run the floor really well."
Douglass was fouled with 0.8 seconds on the clock from well past the arc and hit all 3 free throws to extend the Scouts' advantage to 30-13 at halftime.
"At halftime, I said, 'We just got to come out and play our game, stop worrying about everything that's going on, and don't worry about the scoreboard,' " said coach Steve Ikenn, whose Rams placed Bullman and Rosie Drevline on the all-tournament team. "I thought we looked a little more assured of ourselves with the ball (in the second half). They're a big team, they got a lot of length, and that cuts down the passing lanes. We didn't adjust to it (in the first half) as quickly as we needed to."
Grayslake Central committed 14 turnovers but only two in the second half, and the Rams outscored the Scouts 21-11.
"They're a good team, they're a well-coached team, and they're a talented team," Ikenn said of the Scouts. "We can't afford to have some letdowns. Which we did."
A three-point play by Douglass hiked Lake Forest's lead to 33-15 early in the second half. Grayslake had an 8-0 run later, but the final margin was as close as the Rams got.
"Defensively, I thought Finola (Summerville) did a great job on Bullman and really bothered her," Wilhelm said. "A couple of shots (Bullman) hit were really tough shots."
Tirzmalis added 9 points and 7 rebounds for the winners. And while only four Scouts scored, offensive balance has been a key during their recent stretch.
"I'm really excited about how we're playing right now," said Douglass, who was named to the all-tournament team along with Tirzmalis. "We're playing as a team, and everyone's contributing."