Bears Buzzed By Zee-Bees, 59-44

Too bad for the Lake Zurich girls’ basketball team that there are four quarters to a game. The team did fine in the first half in their 59-44 loss to Zion-Benton (19-5) Saturday night, repeatedly battling back from deficits late in the first quarter and early in the second before taking a small lead at halftime.

“That’s been the story all year with our team,” said coach Chris Bennett. “If we played consistently for all four quarters, there’s no telling what we might do.”

The Zee-Bees jumped out to a 6-0 lead, as shooting powerhouse Morgan Garrett scored the first four points of the game, the first on a layup and then a tip-in off the board. Another basket was added by freshman Samantha Rodriguez, who is also a scoring machine for Zion. Rodriguez, as she did several times during the game, scored a layup following her own steal.

The Zee-Bees were up 10-5 when the Bears began to chip away at the lead. Their comeback late in the first quarter was a team effort, with scores by Maisie Cox, Renee Wojcik, Kelsey Dreiling, who had a 3-point play and Cathryne Spear. Katherine Anderson also had a nice layup after a steal. The ball almost got away from her as she drove down court before breaking her own momentum and shooting. At the end of the quarter, the Bears were down 16-14.

Lake Zurich (11-15) took the lead halfway through the second quarter, when Wojcik scored on a layup for a 20-19 lead. Dreiling added to the lead with a layup, although the Zee-Bees came right back and tied it late in the quarter. With time running out, Cox nailed a jumper from the left side, and the team went into the locker room with a 25-23 lead.

The third quarter is when things turned ugly. Juanita Robinson scored almost immediately on a layup following a half court pass from Rodriguez, knotting the score at 25. The Bears answered back with a layup by Spear, and then Katherine Anderson went 2-for-2 from the free throw line, and Lake Zurich led 29-27.

That was the last lead that the team would enjoy, however, as Zion went on an 18-3 run during the remainder of the quarter. It happened so swiftly and so decisively that the Bears never had an opportunity to regroup, in spite of Bennett calling a timeout to try and slow down the onslaught. There were several steals and fast breaks by Zion that caught the Bears flat-footed, with almost all of the scoring by Samantha Rodriguez, Robinson and Garrett. By the end of the quarter, Zion led 45-32.

The Zee-Bees didn’t slow down in the fourth quarter, either, as they scored an additional six unanswered points, upping their lead to 51-32 for their biggest margin of the game. The Bears finally scored on a pair of free throws by Spear, and followed that up with another 2-for-2 effort from the line by Dreiling.

The difference in the second half was Zion’s ability to execute a number of things they had unsuccessfully attempted in the first two quarters, including fast break steals leading to points, long passes leading to easy, undefended layups or dunks and overall improved ball handling. The generally larger size of their players also factored into their dominant play, as the Bears were repeatedly beaten off the boards.

Bears Pause: Zion-Benton outscored Lake Zurich 36-19 in the second half. Maisie Cox was the Bears top scorer with 10 points, followed by Kelsey Dreiling’s 9 and Cathryne Spear’s 8. Samantha Rodriguez paced Zion-Benton with 16 points, while Morgan Garrett and Juanita Robinson each added 14.

Karlissa Skarb is “day-to-day” according to Bennett. He anticipates her being ready in time for Tuesday’s game against Grant, but is unsure if she'll be starting. Dori Darras, who has been sidelined for about a month, is also due back shortly.

 Next Up: 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 8, at home against Grant; 7:30pm, Friday, Feb. 11, at home against Stevenson in a game rescheduled due to last week’s blizzard, which is also the regular season finale.