Boys Basketball: Lemont cruises past Eisenhower
By Tina Akouris takouris@suntimes.com December 15, 2012 1:28AM
Eisenhower's defense attempts to stop Lemont's Juozas Balciunas (25) during Friday night's game between Lemont and Eisenhower high schools. | Paul Bergstrom ~ For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: January 17, 2013 6:45AM
Five players scored in double figures for Lemont in an 86-51 victory over visiting Eisenhower on Friday, but Indians coach Rick Runaas took that statistic in stride.
“It’s something we’d like to make more typical,” Runaas said. “Looking at Eisenhower, we know what type of game they try to play and we had to have everybody catch and score.”
Juozas Balciunas led No. 1 Lemont with a game-high 24 points, eight assists and three steals. Also scoring in double figures were Mike Wisz (15 points), Martynas Einikis (13), Jack Shereck (12) and Joe Hehir (10). Hehir had a team-leading seven steals.
The victory kept Lemont perfect at 9-0.
The Indians ran a new defense to try to combat Eisenhower’s up-tempo style of play.
“That’s what they do every game and they try to play that Grinnell (College) style,” Runaas said. “I was happy with the way we ran shooters off of their mark and defensively we did a good job.”
Lemont wasn’t satisfied with a healthy 11-point halftime lead. The Indians came out with a blistering 17-0 run in the third quarter, increasing their lead to 62-38.
“After our practice Thursday we got motivated and I think it took us a couple minutes to get used to it, but we came out in the third quarter and really gave it to them,” said Shereck, who also had eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.
The Indians started out slow and trailed Eisenhower 19-16 in the first quarter.
“We just adapted more because in the first half we had to get used to everything,” Shereck said. “Wisz started off (that scoring run) with a dunk and that really got us going.”
Nick Curta led Eisenhower (2-5) with 14 points.
