Boys Basketball: Lake Forest holds off Grant
Updated: May 9, 2012 10:18AM
Last March, Lake Forest found itself matched up with Palatine Fremd in the finals of a Class 4A regional tournament.
This coming Friday, the teams will rematch, this time at Palatine, with a berth in the Barrington Sectional at stake.
Fremd prevailed in last year’s meeting 44-38. That result came after Lake Forest pulled off an upset (over Zion-Benton) in the semis.
This year, it’s Fremd (17-11) coming in on the high, having upset Waukegan on Tuesday.
But Lake Forest (17-10) has to be confident after the way it handled Grant 51-43 in Wednesday’s regional semi.
“We’re playing with a lot of confidence. We’re moving the ball well,” said senior guard Thomas Durrett. “We know we have a lot of guys who can make plays.
“We have to rebound and make every possession count on Friday.”
Against Grant, Lake Forest executed well, building a 24-16 halftime lead and leading by 15 in the fourth quarter.
“Grant’s a good team. They’re tougher than nails,” said Scouts coach Phil LaScala. “They play really hard for 32 minutes.
“I thought we controlled the defensive boards. We challenged our kids all week and they did a great job on the defensive glass, and then getting to the offensive glass for put-backs.”
The Scouts were led in scoring by Durrett with a game-high 16 points on 8-of-18 shooting. Freshman Evan Boudreau had seven points and seven boards, and Carter Bass had seven points off the bench.
Creighton Titus, a 6-9 senior, had nine rebounds, three blocks, and created havoc for Grant’s inside scorers.
“I thought their size was the difference,” said Grant coach Wayne Bosworth. You saw how tall they were. I think you look at our sectional this year, and seeds 4-16 and how ever everybody was, it was going to come down to matchups.”
Grant (20-8) got 13 points from Sean Wells. Big men Jared Helmich (11 points, 8 rebounds) and Ilya Kadushin (nine points) were held well below their averages.
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