LIBERTYVILLE, Il. – Despite trailing by a 16-5 margin after the first quarter of play, the Lake Forest girls basketball team (5-1, 0-1) seemed to settle into the swing of things offensively early on in the second. Yet with each Scouts’ basket, Libertyville seemingly came right back with a bucket of their own, racking up double-digit scoring numbers in the first two consecutive quarters. Even though they were able to put up an ample 15 points by the end of the second quarter, the Scouts couldn’t stop the highly touted Wildcat offense, closing the half with a 29-20 deficit.

After the break, the Scouts struggles continued on the defensive end of the hardwood, and points soon became hard to come by. A stout defensive effort in the second half by the Wildcats limited the Scouts to 14 points for the remainder of the game. Coach Kyle Wilhelm’s unit committed an astounding 22 turnovers over the span of the contest, and simply couldn’t get any of their shots to go. On what now marks one of their lowest shooting performances on the year, the Scouts connected on only 9-39 of their shots from the field, a mere 23%. As the turnovers and unsuccessful offensive possessions piled up for the Scouts, the Wildcats, now (4-2, 1-0), only appeared to be picking up steam until the final horn en route to their 51-34 win last night.

The scoring for Wilhelm’s group fell largely into the hands of senior Grace Tirzmalis and junior Halle Douglass, as the two combined for 26 of the Scouts’ 34 total points. Together, the duo shot 6-18 (33%) and did most of the heavy lifting for the team. As a whole, the offense gradually became lifeless as the game drew to a close.

The Scouts are back in action Friday night at Stevenson as they take on the undefeated Patriots (6-0, 1-0). Things won’t get any easier against another solid conference opponent who just knocked off a talented Warren Blue Devils’ team, especially on the road.