Bears Stomped By Giants

If the Bear's Billy Pitcher was somewhat reticent to talk, you can't blame him, or any coach for that matter, when your team suffers a substantial drubbing. And Lake Zurich's 50-31 loss Saturday night to the Highland Park Giants was just that.

"We had some opportunities early in the game," said Pitcher.

While the Bears did indeed have plenty of opportunities to put the ball through the net early on, they came out cold as a winter night, missing eight of their first ten shots as the Giants built a 16-6 lead by the end of the first quarter.  

In spite of some solid perimeter passing,  Lake Zurich was unable to penetrate Highland Park's defense during most of the first half. They also committed numerous turnovers, giving the Giants ample opportunity to take it to the hoop.

Even though there was a lot of back-and forth by both teams during the first few minutes of the game, there was very little scoring. The Giants gradually warmed up on the boards, however,  while the Bears remained stuck in neutral.

Highland Park started to kick it into high gear when Jonny Stempel swished a three-pointer with two minutes remaining in the first quarter, upping the Giants lead to 11-4. Ben Levine hit for another three at the end of the quarter for a 16-6 advantage.

At the start of the second quarter, Drake Orser, who did much of the team's heavy lifting by scoring 12 points, muscled his way under the net, rebounding off of his own missed shot, which is something you can do when you're a 6'8" 215-pound prep player.

Unfortunately, the Giants continually nabbed defensive rebounds and moved the ball to their side of the court. The closest that the Bears came to narrowing Highland Park's lead was when Mike Boyd nailed a triple-pointer to make it 21-15 with a little over four minutes remaining before halftime.

As he did at the beginning of the game, Orser hit the Bear's first two shots of the third quarter. But the Giants started getting red-hot from three-point range, as Layne Gierke connected, widening the Giant's lead to 35-21. Then, after a pair of missed free throws by Orser, Stempel hit another tres for a 38-21 Giants lead.

Highland Park's coach Paul Harris is well-known for his team's excellent defense, and the Giants continually trapped the Bears on the outside, allowing minimum penetration throughout the game. "We had trouble moving in," said the Bear's Mirko Grcic.

It wasn't until about the six-minute mark of the fourth quarter that the normally high-scoring Grcic scored his first points of the game, on a pair of free throws. He finished the night with just six points. Later in the quarter, Gierke's third three-pointer of the game was the death knell for the Bears, who fell behind 43-26. 

After Orser, Bear's junior guard Mike Boyd finished second with eight points. Guard Colin Rathe was held to a single point on a free throw. All nine of the Giant's Ben Levine's points were the result of three-point shots.

"We'll continue to work on our ball handling," said coach Pitcher.

Next up for the Bears: back-to-back home games on Friday and Saturday against  Lake Forest and Prospect.