Boys basketball: Lake Forest doubles up Vernon Hills in regional final
Friday evening's Class 3A Vernon Hills regional final featured something rather unique as it pitted two coaches that had combined to have coached in 1,200 games.
Phil LaScala (570 games) and second-seeded Lake Forest made the trek to face Matt McCarty (630 games) and the No. 7 seed regional host.
"How about that," McCarty said with a look of amazement in reference to hearing that factoid.
'I got a little less hair," LaScala jokingly said as his squad began pursuit of a fourth straight square-sized IHSA plaque with pregame warm-ups.
Thanks to their ability to pitch a defensive gem that featured a second quarter shutout, the Scouts went back home with that very same regional championship plaque, defeating the host Cougars 50-25 to earn the 16th regional/district title in school history.
It also earned a ticket to Antioch for Wednesday's sectional semifinal against No. 3 Deerfield (23-7) who beat Notre Dame (16-16), 42-34 on Friday night..
The win for Lake Forest (22-9) marked the seventh time it had held an opponent to under 30 points a game and the 18th occasion it had held a team to under 40 points a game.
"All year long we've been emphasizing out defense and these guys have bought into our philosophy all year," LaScala said.
"They're workhorses. If you look at some of our scores this year, what they've done defensively is a great tribute to how they've worked and I'm just really proud of them."
After Vernon Hills (17-15) closed within 14-10 on an Anthony Morgan Jr. three-pointer before the horn sounded on the first quarter, the Scouts would go on a 10-0 run in the second. They held the Cougars to 0-of-10 shooting from the floor, 4-18 in the first half and a total of 10-48 (20%) for the evening as their front court of seniors Grant Mordini (6-10 center), Hudson Scroggins (6-7 forward), and 6-5 Dominic Mordini outrebounded the home team 35-16.
The decisive second period surge for the visitors featured a rebound slam from Grant Mordini at the 5:43 mark and concluded when he fed Dominic Mordini for an inside hoop that made it 24-10 just 1:46 before the break.
An 18-9 third quarter expanded the Lake Forest advantage to 42-19 entering the final stanza.
Grant and Dominic Mordini shared game-high scoring honors with Cougars senior guard Tyler Perritt with 12 each.
"I liked the energy we came out with," McCarty said. "That's obviously hard to sustain over the course of four quarters."
"They're so big you have to adjust," Perritt said. "It's hard to get those inside shots off and that's what our team is really good at. Once we couldn't get those, it (was) hard to find a spark."
Perritt, along with Morgan Jr., guards Simeon Friedman, Jackson Lazar and Sam Bajracharya, and forward Tomasz Starr, played in their final home game.
"It's been a great group of guys," McCarty said. "We got 17 wins and finished third in the (CSL North). We have a nice core of juniors (that) I told them to make sure to watch Lake Forest get that regional plaque delivered to them at center court and maybe put that taste in their mouth and something to strive for next year."
As for Perritt, the end of his Cougar career meant something more than victory or defeat.
"I couldn't do anything without the rest of this team,“ Perritt said. ”We had good chemistry on and off the court. All the guys are good buddies. This team means so much to me."