Introducing the Daily Herald’s Lake County boys basketball team, featuring players from the North Suburban and Northern Lake County Conferences plus Carmel Catholic and Vernon Hills.

Introducing the Daily Herald’s Northwest all-area boys basketball team, featuring players from the Mid-Suburban League plus St. Viator, Maine West, Christian Liberty Academy and Leyden.

Thanks to a late first-half run, Warren’s boys basketball team pulled away from Highland Park en route to a 78-50 triumph in Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional semifinal play Wednesday.

Survive and advance.It’s a phrase you hear often during this time of year as postseason play begins.On Tuesday, two of the North Suburban Conference tri-champions, Stevenson and Libertyville, lived up to the phrase in their regional openers.Wednesday night saw Warren, followed suit — emphatically. The Blue Devils thrived and prospered, leaving Highland Park in the rearview mirror.Thanks to a late first-half run, the Blue Devils pulled away from the Giants en route to a 78-50 triumph in the Class 4A Hoffman Estates regional semifinal.Ninth-seeded Warren will face top-seeded sectional host Lake Zurich (23-7) Friday evening for the third time this season. The Blue Devils won the two previous meetings in NSC play.“We’ve had some great practices as of late where our guys have brought a high amount of energy,” Warren coach Jon Jasnoch said. “All of those guys were really excited about starting regionals tonight and you saw them get off to a good start early.”That promising start for the Blue Devils (19-11) came courtesy of Branden Ellis. The 6-3 senior put 12 of Warren’s 15 points on the board during the first eight minutes, including their first 10 commencing with consecutives threes followed by back-to-back lay-ups as he engaged in a scoring dual with the Giants’ Ziv Tal, who tallied all of eighth-seeded Highland Park’s 12 first-period points.Where the contest turned in the Blue Devils’ favor is when Ellis found a scoring partner in Ian Schilling. The 6-1 senior’s layup at the 5:28 mark completed a 9-2 run that gave Warren its first double-digit lead of the night at 24-14.After back-to-back baskets from the Giants’ Tyler Gussis and Lucas Fleisher brought them within 24-18, Warren began the game’s decisive surge with an Adnan Sarancic hoop followed by the first of Schilling’s five treys that launched a 15-5 tear. Warren led 39-23 at the break. “We started to make shots,” Schilling, who finished with 19 points, said. “We started splashing threes. We had a great feel for our shot selection in the face of the good defense that Highland Park had for us. It also shows that when you keep working the ball for a good shot, it can come to you much easier.”Only a Tal layup to start half number two got Highland Park (15-11) any closer than 14 the rest of the way.The 6-1 senior Giant led them in the scoring column with 23 points, in addition he earned plaudits from Warren’s leading scorer Ellis (25 points).“He’s great.” Ellis said. “We had a chance to watch him on film and from what we saw he has this endless, limitless ability to do so many things well. After the game we spoke and he wished us well and we both came away with a tremendous mutual respect for one another.”Those well-wishes from Tal will be needed for Warren as it gets set to face a Lake Zurich team it beat twice already this season with a 51-44 win on the Bears’ home floor just 18 days ago.“There’s a sense of familiarity between both teams,” Jasnoch said. “Everybody knows everybody and has played with both each and one another. Both games were close and it will be a really exciting atmosphere against a really great competitor.”

Maine West’s fairy tale boys basketball season, its best in 20 years, didn’t have the happy ending the Warriors were hoping for. Notre Dame wrote the outcome in its own favor Tuesday night in the Class 4A Glenbrook South regional.

Libertyville’s boys basketball team needed more than just star guard Drew Peterson to avoid a first-round upset in the state tournament. Another senior, Chase Eyre, stepped up three times in the final two-plus minutes. His efforts helped the fourth-seeded Wildcats hold off No. 14 Deerfield 53-52 in a Class 4A regional semifinal at Deerfield on Tuesday night.

Prospect boys basketball coach John Camardella wanted his team come out of the blocks quickly. The Knights did not let their coach down — in either half.

Evan Myers scored 18 points, Johnny Roeser added 10, and Carmel Catholic’s boys basketball team defeated Vernon Hills 60-42 in a semifinal of the Class 3A Wauconda regional on Tuesday night.