Lake Zurich Girls Wrap Up Basketball Season

In their IHSA regional quarterfinal game on Tuesday, The Lake Zurich Bears girls basketball team handily defeated Lake Forest, 52-24. Building a 19-2 lead, the Bears continued to roll over the Scouts throughout the entire game.

The Bears led 14-2 after the first quarter; 27-11 at halftime and 38-14 after three quarters.

It was the first time in four weeks that junior Dori Darras and senior Karlissa Skarb, two of the team’s better players, were in the lineup at the same time. Darras missed over a month with a broken bone in her right hand, and Skarb has been recovering from a muscle pull in her chest.

“We missed Dori’s leadership and basketball knowledge and Karlissa’s aggressiveness,” said Bears’ coach Chris Bennett.

“I am proud of our kids,” said Bennett. “We showed up with game faces on, did what we needed to do.  It’s all about survive and advance and we took care of business.”

Skarb led the team with 12 points, Maisie Cox had 7 points and Darras had 6 points to pace the Bears. Gina Barbaglia also scored 4 points, her first of the season.

“The Lake Forest kids played their hearts out all season with great effort,” said Bennett.  “They didn’t achieve a whole lot of success in the win column, but it’s great to see kids give that kind of effort regardless of the results on the scoreboard.”

In Wednesday night’s game, the Bears lost to Zion-Benton, 52-42, and the loss concluded the team’s season. The Bears were consistently down by three  to five points throughout much of the game, although they continued to hang tough and never let the Zee-Bees pull away from them with too big of a lead.

Down by just three points with four minutes to play,  Zion-Benton had three easy baskets in their next five possessions, including two assists by Juanita Robinson and a basket by Olivia Crump and Morgan Garrett. At the same time, Lake Zurich committed four turnovers in five possessions. The Zee-Bees were able to extend their lead to nine points to clinch the victory.

“We played what I thought was our best basketball of the year for twenty-eight minutes and almost knocked off a top twenty team,” said Bennett.

Zion  led 15-10 after the first quarter, 28-24 at the half and 38-33 at the end of the third quarter.

Karlissa Skarb led the Bears with 11 points. “She was a warrior,” said Bennett. 

“All game long you could tell she was extremely bothered by the muscle pull in her chest, wincing in pain most of the game.  She had a couple of times in the second half where I had to take her out, and then she would go back in and will herself to make a play.  She was unbelievable.  It’s such an awesome thing to see kids play sports with their heart.”

Dori Darras knocked in a second-best 10 points for Lake Zurich. “She had perhaps her best game of the year,” said Bennett. “ It was great to see her back out on the floor, giving us a glimpse of what we can expect from her next year.”

Maisie Cox also scored 10 points. “Maisie Cox also played one of her better games,” said Bennett.  “She played a great floor game, under great pressure from the Zion guards all game long.”

“I also want to mention Kelsey Dreiling, our senior post player who battled their two bigs all night long on the defensive end.  She got thrown to the ground a couple of times, hit in the jaw, hit in the stomach, but just kept playing.”

It was the final game for five seniors on the team: Tabbetha Bohac, Kelsey Dreiling, Kelley Hirt, Liz Manella and Karlissa Skarb.

“They will be missed greatly,” said Bennett.  “They are five consummate team players with a great work ethic and a total team commitment.  And on top of that, they are just great people.  They are examples to our younger players of what hard work and effort can do, and how to play with heart, and I could not be more proud of them for all they have accomplished.  The Lake Zurich community should be proud to have young girls like them represent them in high school athletics.”