On Tuesday the Boys Varsity Basketball team played the Waukegan Bulldogs in each team’s North Suburban Conference opener. Lake Forest was missing senior and Clemson commit Asa Thomas due to illness. Still, the team was able to handle the Bulldogs behind junior Tommie Aberle. 

The Scouts got off to a slow start, only scoring four points in the first quarter; at the end of the first, the Bulldogs were up 11-4. During the second quarter, Tommie Aberle started to heat up for the Scouts and helped them stay in the game; however, the Scouts were still down at halftime 26-19. 

“Coach LaScala got us fired up at halftime; he was very enthusiastic about trying to keep ourselves in the game and fix the mistakes that we had made during the first half,” said senior guard Noah Portalatin. 

Coming out in the third quarter, the defense for the Scouts really tightened up after hearing Coach LaScala’s halftime speech. They were able to cut Waukegan’s lead to 4 and head into the fourth quarter trailing 31-27. 

The Scouts’ defense was superb in the fourth quarter but struggled in the last 30 seconds allowing Waukegan to tie the game at 36 and send it to overtime. Waukegan was led by senior Devin Malone who had 21 points and multiple clutch shots down the stretch, but he fouled out in overtime. 

In overtime Malone and Aberle traded baskets and the game went into a second overtime tied at 42. In the second overtime, Aberle took over and put the game away by sinking four straight free throws down the stretch to seal the victory for the Scouts. 

Aberle finished with a game high 28 points and 8 rebounds with sophomore Hudson Scroggins adding 9 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for a final 53-46 double overtime Scout victory.

The Scouts improved to 3-2 on the season and 1-0 in conference. They are looking for a home win on Saturday Dec. 10 at 5:30 versus Libertyville.