Round Lake proves to be victorious vs. Northtown Academy

Looks can be deceiving, with Round Lake basketball brothers Ben and Zach Kuligoski providing proof.

Wins can be deceiving, too.

So while Round Lake's 76-65 victory over nonconference visitor CICS/Northtown Academy on Wednesday night seemed all good, it wasn't completing satisfying to Panthers coach Jeremy Fisher.

Round Lake rallied in the fourth quarter to improve to 2-3 and snap a three-game losing streak.

"Yeah, it was a fast-paced game, a lot of up and down and a high-scoring game, and those are always fun," said Fisher, smiling. "But I would have rather held the score a little lower than what it was.

"We have the ability to play in transition, and we have the ability to finish," the coach added. "But sometimes we don't execute the best. So we need to sometimes take a step back, slow it down, work our offense a little bit and get a quality shot. We're working on it. Eventually, I'd love to be that up-tempo, fast-paced, 'Let's go, let's go, let's go.' But we still got some learning to do before we get to that."

Ben Kuligoski came off the bench to score a team-high 17 points, including 7 of 7 from the foul line. Michael Green and Jordan Keith each added 13 for Round Lake, which had 10 players score.

"We were scoring a lot of points," Ben Kuligoski said. "It was fun."

It was a good night for the Kuligoski brothers. Zach, a 6-foot-3 junior forward, had 9 points and pair of blocked shots. While Zach is "skinny," his big brother says, Ben, a 6-2 senior forward, is broad-shouldered and built like a linebacker.

"It's the opposite end of the spectrum," Fisher said with a laugh. "But I like them both. They bring their own little piece to the table."

Part of the learning curve for Round Lake includes protecting a lead. Round Lake used an 8-0 run to take a 39-31 edge into halftime and still led by that eight-point margin midway through the third quarter. But Northtown Academy went on an 8-0 run and took a 54-52 lead into the fourth when sophomore C.J. Casey (game-high 25 points, 8 rebounds) hit a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer.

Round Lake owned the fourth, though. Julian Herrera's second 3-pointer of the game a minute into the quarter gave the lead back to the Panthers, and they never relinquished it.

Green, who was in foul trouble most of the night, scored back-to-back buckets to build the cushion to six. The Panthers spread the wealth offensively, getting baskets from seven players in the quarter. The other fourth-quarter contributors included Javari Goodwin (4 points), Keith (2), Dallas Soto (2), Jose Tostado (2) and Ben Kuligoski, who sank 4 free throws in the final 20 seconds.

"We knew we had to step up (in the fourth) and bury them quickly," Ben Kuligoski said. "We wanted to make sure we could get them down by a lot so we didn't have to fight back at the end."