Girls Basketball: Lake Zurich loses big lead, holds on for win

Updated: January 21, 2012 6:08PM

A mixed blessing? That’s how Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett described his team’s great start at Zion-Benton on Saturday afternoon? Heck, his Bears were blowing the doors right off the team that finished second in the state a year ago.

The Bears had a 20-point lead trimmed to six in the fourth quarter, but held on for a 52-43 North Suburban Lake win.

Katherine Anderson led Lake Zurich with 16 points.

“We didn’t have practice yesterday because of the snow,’’ Anderson said. “We came out with a lot of energy. We wanted to come out strong.”

On a drive and bucket from Dori Darras Lake Zurich led 31-11.

But Zion-Benton came back. Octavia Crump and freshman Mia Yarbrough made a run at the visitors. On a Crump steal and basket, the 20-point Bears lead slipped to six points in the fourth quarter at 43-37 before they pulled away.

Anderson took part in the first-half domination of the Zee-Bees.

Her back-to-back three-pointers closed out the first-half scoring with the Bears (14-8, 6-4) up 17-4.

“Katherine hit some huge shots for us,’’ Bennett said.

It wasn’t much better for the Zee-Bees in the second quarter. Zion-Benton had one field goal on the board in the second quarter. Aaliyah Smith’s jumper finally put the home team in double figures in the final 30 seconds of the first half. But Lake Zurich answered that quickly with a personal five-point run from Stephanie Schmid. Her three-pointer beat the buzzer and gave the Bears a 29-11 halftime lead.

And as quickly as Lake Zurich had built that 20-point advantage, the Zee-Bees began to chip away at it. Crump, who Bennett calls the best player in the North Suburban Conference, had two points at halftime. Her drive to the hoop in the final minute of the third quarter gave her eight points for the game and cut the Lake Zurich lead in half at 37-27.

While Lake Zurich tried to run out the clock and get to the foul line, Crump (12 points) turned to driving to the hoop. She also found time to hit the promising freshman Yarbrough (16 points) with passes. Lake Zurich also had help from Darras (eight points) and Cathryne Spear (seven points).

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