Palatine dumps Lake Zurich
When Palatine senior David Balanganayi went down with an injury early in the first quarter Monday against Lake Zurich, teammate Tommy Swanson understood that it was next man up.
Balanganayi, a 6-foot-4 senior forward, received a laceration above his eye diving for a loose ball with 1:57 remaining in the initial period.
After a lengthy delay in which Balanganyi had to be assisted to the locker room, Swanson and his teammates escalated their game.
"We were just focused," said Swanson, a junior. "We were concerned after David got tangled up but like always we were ready for the next play."
And with Swanson, Ben Storm and Zac Garnmeister providing some stellar defense, Palatine took a lead near the end of the stanza a didn't look back.
Julian Campbell, a 6-6 sophomore, scored a game high 31 points as the Pirates defeated the Bears 70-61 in the opening game of the Class 4A Barrington boys basketball regional.
The 16th-seeded Pirates now take on rival and second-seeded Fremd at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Palatine had to survive a fourth-quarter onslaught by Lake Zurich. After scoring just 27 points through three periods due to some tough Palatine defense, the Bears rallied by scoring 34 points in the final stanza but fell short.
"We weren't able to speed Palatine up like we wanted to tonight," said LZ coach Terry Coughlin. "That's a credit to them, but I give credit to our guys as well. They didn't stop until there were zeros on the clock.
"I told them that I was proud of them. I had said to them, 'what do you want to be remembered for', and this team will be remembered as the guys who fought until the very end and didn't give up."
Palatine entered the fourth with a 15 point lead, and extended it to 18 when Storm hit a 3-pointer.
Then Lake Zurich, which had been held to 1-for-10 from 3-point range through the first 24 minutes, hit 6 in a row (2 each by Matt McGraw and Austin Lepage).
The Bears got within 7 late, but Swanson helped close out the game with 5 free throws down the stretch.
"They do a lot to make it tough on a team," said Coughlin of Palatine. "They've got those bigs and they really did a good job of getting the pace on their end. We tried to control the pace and pick it but their sophomore guard Luke Seiffert is pretty good - he plays more like a junior or senior."
Senior guard JR Cison led the Bears with 17 points while McGraw scored 16 and Lepage 14.
Swanson finished with 10 points for the Pirates while Campbell added 13 rebounds.
"JR Cison is a really good offensive basketball player," said Palatine coach Eric Millstone of the LZ senior. "Zac Garnmeister and Ben Storm did an excellent job tonight of contesting everything and making him work for everything he got."
"This was huge," said Campbell of the playoff win. "We knew who their shooters were and we went out and put our best defenders on them."
Storm added 19 points for Palatine, including 5 3's.
"Coach Millstone said we needed length on them," said Storm of the Palatine defensive effort. "Zac and the rest of the guys really stepped up."