There's no place like home for Scouts

Lake Forest's Kevin Berardini tries to drive past Lake Zurich's Connor Mooney.
(Marina Samovsky/News-Sun)

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The schedule hasn't been kind to Lake Forest in the first two months of the 2007-08 season.

The Scouts have played only two homes games this season -- including Wednesday's 74-56 thumping of visiting Lake Zurich in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division clash.

Road games included a four-contest stretch to start December in which Lake Forest battled NSC Lake foes Warren, Mundelein and Stevenson on the road, along with a non-league contest at Palatine.

Despite all the travel, the Scouts have come away with a 6-3 overall record and a 3-2 mark in the NSC Lake heading into next week's road trip to Bloomington/Normal for a Christmas tournament.

The early road games mean NSC Lake powers such as Zion-Benton, Warren, Mundelein and Stevenson will be visiting the cozy confines of Lake Forest's small gym in the coming weeks.

"It's been tough with so many road games, especially since we play so well at home," said Lake Forest junior Matt Vogrich , who poured in a game-high 20 points with five 3-pointers and eight rebounds in Wednesday's victory over Lake Zurich (4-5, 0-5).

"Now, we have some good teams coming to our gym, so we are looking forward to that."

Vogrich's play helped the Scouts make 15 of 24 field-goal attempts (63 percent) in the first half when they were building an impressive 42-24 lead.

"We seem to shoot well in our gym," he said.

Lake Forest coach Phil LaScala credited the Scouts' offensive outburst to good teamwork.

"We moved the ball well," he said. "We haven't been doing that as well as we should have the past few games. When we do move the ball and make that extra pass, we have some pretty good shooters who can make some shots."

Six different Lake Forest players drained treys in Wednesday's win -- including a pair of 3-pointers off the bench by David Holmes to help the Scouts thwart a possible Lake Zurich second-half comeback.

The Bears used 13 of 17 shooting from the free throw line in the third quarter to slice Lake Forest's lead to 48-38 with 3:36 left in the period.

Holmes (11 points), Vogrich and senior Andy Timson (15 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists) righted the ship for the Scouts in the final minutes of the third quarter to bounce the lead back to a commanding 62-43 heading into the last eight minutes.

LaScala also credited the defense of junior guard Kevin Berardini on Lake Zurich junior Connor Mooney (14 points) as a key to the win.

"We limited Mooney to just three baskets, which was a credit to Kevin," said LaScala. "We didn't want (Mooney) to have a big game, and I thought we did a pretty job of containing him."

Lake Forest will be on the road again next week in its post-Christmas tournament, but the Scouts are looking forward to the challenge of competing in a new event for them.

"We had a pretty good tournament at Pontiac last season after losing our first game, so we are hoping to do well in down in Bloomington against some different teams," said Vogrich. "Then, we come back home for a bunch of games, which will be great."