Libertyville captures conso title at Wheeling
Libertyville's boys basketball team has come a long way this season, and coach Brian Zyrkowski believes it.
The Wildcats showed how far they've come Saturday night in a 66-55 consolation-bracket title win over Maine West at the Wheeling Wildcat Hardwood Classic.
What they learned about themselves as well is that after starting the season relying on the generally excellent floor game of point guard and co-captain Josh Steinhaus, they can spread the ball around now and rely on just about everybody.
"We knew they were going to play Steinhaus tough," Zyrkowski said of the Warriors, and he was right. Steinhaus scored 11, keyed a 28-point third quarter with three hoops, including a 3-pointer, and forced a sound Maine West team into repeated ball-handling mistakes in building a lead as wide as 43-25.
Travis Clark's uncanny 5 consecutive shots without a miss in the quarter, four of them 3-pointers, also proved impactful and Maine West had no answer as Libertyville built its lead.
"They got really hot," Maine West coach Tom Prokopij said.
But so did his kids. They pulled within 57-50 with 3:07 left as junior forward Jacob Riedl came off the bench to hit a pair of 3-pointers and point guard Justin Scholler (12 points) had a driving 3-point play as Libertyville missed its first five shots in the fourth quarter and committed … wait for it … 13 turnovers in the quarter out of 15 total in the second half against Maine West's aggressive press.
"Credit Maine West," Zyrkowski said after his Wildcats (7-7) finished 3-1 in the tourney, winning their last three. "They didn't give up."
Libertyville's slight collapse came with point guard Steinhaus on the bench with 4 fouls and then back on the bench when he fouled out almost as soon as he went back in.
Zyrkowski is grateful though that his team has gone from being one that relied on Steinhaus heavily to start the season to one that is learning to share the ball, with or without him.
"All the players put up a lot of points," said Steinhaus, as, not lost on him, were Clark's game-high 19, hustling Brian Wilterdink's 11, Patrick Graham's 11 and Jackson Watson's 14. It was all of the those players' combined free throws down the stretch that finally sealed the win.
"We're moving the ball a lot more. We're a scrappy defensive team," Steinhaus said of the Wildcats' progress since game one this season.
Maine West, meanwhile, believes "We're going to be OK," Prokopij said. "Riedl has given us some good minutes all season," he noted of the junior's contribution. "We've got a lot of learning to do, but I'm pretty excited about the rest of the season."
So are Steinhaus and Libertyville.
"We're a team," he said, "if we get hot, we can do a lot of damage."