New Trier hands Warren its first loss
The "G" denoting guard next to New Trier senior Tyler Van Gorp's name on the Trevians' boys basketball roster made coach Scott Fricke chuckle Wednesday night at Warren.
"Yes," he said, "that's a typo."
Van Gorp stands 6-feet-10 and does things forwards and centers do.
His 6-4 teammate Jake Fiegen, a junior guard committed to Cornell University, came up huge in New Trier's 50-40 defeat of Warren, pouring in a game-high 16 points and grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds.
Oh, and 7 of those boards were of the offensive variety in Gurnee.
Not a typo.
"He's a bulldog," Fricke said. "When your best player is that type of player, a tough kid, and the hardest-working player, it's nice.
"And he's the best 3-point shooter in the state," the coach added.
The teams combined for 6 treys (3 each) in a Ping-Pong-esque 2:48 span in the second quarter. Blue Devils senior forward Adam Panek started the barrage at the 6:33 mark.
New Trier sophomore guard Colby Smith (10 points) answered with a triple 12 seconds later. Warren senior guard Adrian Jones (team-high 10 points) struck next, followed by Warren's Jack Wolf and New Trier's Jun Yoshitani.
Yoshitani (8 points) connected again from beyond the arc 37 seconds later, knotting it at 24-24 at 3:45.
Spectators' necks hurt.
A Fiegen '3' later in the frame gave the visitors a 31-26 advantage.
New Trier (4-1) led 31-28 at the break, thanks to a 7-2 run in the last 3:01 of the half, and then didn't let up a lick in the second half by netting the first 8 points and building a 44-33 lead through three stanzas.
Yoshitani collected 4 of his 5 steals in the third quarter, when Warren (4-1) tallied only 5 points.
"We knew coming in that New Trier is a different animal," Warren coach Zack Ryan said, alluding to New Trier's talent and tenaciousness. "We gave that team everything we had in the first half.
"Second half, we lost a little gas."
Fuel-driven Fiegen scored his team's last point in the third quarter and all 6 of the Trevs' points in the final 8 minutes.
"We were a bit weak at the start, letting Warren run its stuff," Feigen admitted. "But that changed after halftime. We got tougher, we played better defense, and we received significant contributions from our bench players."
New Trier 5-10 senior guard Evan Kanellos scored all 6 of his points via crafty moves in the paint. Big man Van Gorp scored 6, and junior forward Logan Feller came down with 6 rebounds.
Warren junior forward Immanuel Brown had 7 points, and 3 Blue Devils --- Wolf, Jones and Javerion Banks --- added 6 points apiece.
"Defense won this game tonight," Fricke concluded. "But it wasn't easy. That's a very good team, Warren. That's a tough team to guard."