Vogrich, Scouts keep winning on road

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When Lake Forest senior Matt Vogrich needed some help figuring out Lake Zurich’s shooting percentage after the Scouts’ 46-43 win over the host Bears Friday, there were plenty of mathlete teammates shouting out the answer.

That probably doesn’t surprise a lot of people.

The amount of help his teammates have given him on the court this season has. The talent-laden north suburbs were supposed to have plenty of state title contenders: Waukegan, Zion-Benton, Warren and North Chicago were all name-checked throughout the preseason.

Add No. 24 Lake Forest (11-3, 4-1 North Suburban Lake) to the list. The Scouts picked up two huge road wins this week (they beat the Zee-Bees on Wednesday).

“We knew we could be this good,” Vogrich said. “But we may be the only ones who thought that.”

The Scouts jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first half, thanks to a dreadful shooting performance by the Bears (4-for-24 in the first half, 13-for-48 in the game).

“This is a really, really difficult place to play,” Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala said. “They are very good here. We got a little lucky, they had a bad first half shooting the ball.”

Lake Zurich (6-7, 1-3) roared back in the fourth quarter, using a 12-0 burst to cut the deficit to one with 2:16 to play.

Vogrich responded with a driving layup with 2:04 to play and drained a free throw with 33 seconds left to bring the lead up to three.

“I just went baseline and tried to get to the rim as quickly as possible,” Vogrich said. “We really needed to score there.”

Vogrich finished with 17 points and three assists. Mitch Hopfinger added 12 points and Jonathan Sobinsky scored seven for the Scouts.

“Mitch helped us get off to a great start in the first half,” Vogrich said. “Everyone on this team can score, it isn’t always up to me.”

The Bears had a chance to tie, but Danny Coleman (14 points, 12 rebounds) and Chas Evans (eight points) both missed three-pointers.

Lake Zurich used its size advantage to grab a 42-25 advantage on the boards.

“I think Zion-Benton is one of the best rebounding teams in the state and we outrebounded them,” LaScala said. “But we just got killed down low tonight. I think there were a lot of tired legs on our team.”