ZION, Ill.–Generally speaking, a solid way to arrive at the victor in a high school basketball game is looking at which team won the rebounding war and what side committed less turnovers. In the case of the Scouts’ trip to Zion-Benton on Friday night, a time-honored destination in which they won the previous two seasons, the aforementioned formula proved to be incorrect. Though the Scouts (5-11, 0-5) outrebounded the Zee-Bees (8-8, 2-2) and committed less turnovers than the home team, they were still unable to walk away with their first NSC win of the season.

The Scouts trailed by just two at halftime after rebounding from an offensively slow first quarter. Coming out of the break, the Scouts opened the half on an 8-0 run to propel them to a 21-15 lead midway through the third quarter, but the Zee-Bees are never an easy win on their home floor. Down by one point with less than a minute remaining, the Scouts had the ball and a chance to take the lead for good. Ultimately, though, the Scouts committed a turnover, resulting in one of two converted free throws for Zion-Benton. Then, down by three and still within striking distance on their last possession of the game, the Scouts turned it over again, failing to get a look at the basket in crunch time, resulting in their fifth straight NSC loss.

Ben Gibson led the Scouts with 18 points in the win, inlcuding the first ten out of the thirteen points that the Scouts scored in the first half. If there is a silver lining in this one, it is the emergence of junior point guard Jake Fisher as an offensive threat. The junior poured in 13 points, including the Scouts’ lone three-point field goal before fouling out of the contest with less than two minutes remaining.

Lake Forest returns to action to try and right the ship this Saturday at East Campus against the middling Mundelein Mustangs (12-7, 2-3) at 5:30 pm.