Lakes' Sanders making a name for himself

His grandfather did it often on Lake County basketball courts.

On Saturday, it was Jake Sanders' turn to help lead his team to victory.

The Lakes junior guard made 6-of-6 free throws in the final minutes, as the Eagles held off visiting Grayslake Central 36-30 for their first Northern Lake County Conference win of the season.

Sanders is the grandson of Max Sanders, who coached Libertyville's boys team for 20 years and guided the Wildcats to state appearances in 1991 (fourth) and 1994. The 78-year-old Sanders was in attendance Saturday.

"He's the reason why I'm the player that I'm today," Jake Sanders said. "He's taught me almost everything that I know about basketball since I was a little kid."

Sanders finished with 8 points, as Lakes improved to 3-4 and 1-1 in the NLCC. His free throws were all clutch, as the score was tight down the stretch.

"I was just staring at the rim and trying to cancel out the crowd," Sanders said. "I just took a deep breath right before I shot and got my whole body relaxed. I practice free throws every day. Plus, we had extra work this week because of how much we've struggled. I guess it paid off."

Sanders' tosses helped extend Lakes' two-point advantage to 35-27 with 14.4 seconds left. Daniel Rogers (6 points) dropped in a 3-pointer for Grayslake Central (2-6,1-1), but the Eagles' Chance Andell (7 points) added a free throw to finish the scoring.

Lakes had balanced scoring. Matthew Pawlak also had 8 points, Brandon Nava chipped in 7, and Matthew Weichert added 6.

"I thought we had a great defensive game," Eagles coach Chris Snyder said. "The work we've put in the last few days really showed on the court. We want to score more, and we had some good possessions and good looks."

Lakes led 5-2 after the first quarter and was up 14-11 at the break. The Rams came out strong to start the second half, however, and pulled ahead 24-23 by the end of the third quarter. The Eagles' defense and free throws took over in the final couple of minutes.

"I thought we were in it the whole time, but we obviously didn't shoot the ball well," Grayslake Central coach Brian Centella said. "Lakes did a really good job of packing it in the paint and making us take 3s. If you don't knock down shots, it's hard to win basketball games."

Amarion Coleman led Grayslake Central with 9 points, while Grant Hardy added points 8 and 7 rebounds.