Boys Basketball: Waukegan earns eighth straight victory

Updated: February 10, 2012 11:10PM

Waukegan’s top three players combined for 53 points as the Bulldogs rolled past visiting Maine South 71-48 on Friday night in a Central Suburban League South Division game.

Junior point guard Jordan Johnson had 20, high-flying junior Devonte Taylor had 17, and Akeem Springs 16 for Waukegan (14-8 overall, 8-1 in the division) which has won eight in a row.

With the win and Friday’s loss by New Trier to Evanston, Waukegan is now alone in first place in the division and needs only to beat struggling Niles West next Friday to claim the CLS South crown and play in the league’s Championship Game.

Maine South is now 16-11 overall and 4-5 in the rugged CSL South.

The Hawks were led in scoring by reserve Mohammad Al-Hamwi. The senior guard came off the bench and scored nine points.

The Hawks were never in contention. Waukegan raced out to an early 11-2 lead, and was up 18-8 after one period. By halftime, it was 41-19 and the margin ballooned to 63-33 after three periods.

In the first quarter, Maine South committed nine turnovers as Waukegan’s pressure took the visitors completely out of their game.

Waukegan shot lights out from behind arc, going 9-for-18 for the game.

“They got to the lane and scored, and they hit their threes,” Maine South coach Tony Lavorato Jr. said. “It’s really a blip (losing by a huge margin). Their pressure shouldn’t have affected us, but it did tonight.

“We had a tough week emotionally,” Lavorato added, choosing not to expound on what happened. But we’ll get ready for next week’s games and move on. Along with the bus ride (weather-related) made it tough for us tonight.”

For the game, Waukegan hit 31-of-53 shots. Defensively, the Bulldogs forced 20 turnovers, and they also held the Hawks to 18-of-52 shooting from the field.

Maine South got eight points from Matt Lahey and another eight from John Solari.

Waukegan has played in the CLS Championship Game two of the last three seasons, losing to Glenbrook North in 2009 and beating Deerfield in 2010. Last year, Evanston played Niles North for the title.

Currently, Glenbrook North is in first place in the North Division of the CSL. The Spartans play on Saturday night at Warren.

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