After winning five of six North Suburban Conference match-ups, President’s Day Weekend took a turn for the worse for the Lake Forest men’s basketball team. It started on Saturday night when the Scouts squared off in Mundelein against the Mustangs. The two teams went back and forth all game, with the game coming down to the final wire. On their final possession, Ben Gibson took a shot and landed awkwardly on his leg. The shot missed, which led to a 45-44 victory for Mundelein, and Gibson finished with 12 points and a hairline fracture on his fibula.

The heartbreaking loss to Mundelein was only made worse with the injury to their star player. They’ll need guys like Jed Thomas–who finished with 13 against Mundelein–and Mead Payne, who led the Scouts with 12 in last night’s 52-43 loss to Lake Zurich, to step up. Monday night’s contest was the first opportunity for this team to play without Gibson. It didn’t go too well, as they lost by 11 and were unable to even the series record between the two interconference opponents.

The other important event of the weekend was the reveal of the Lake Zurich sectional seedings and pairings. Lake Forest obtained the 12 seed, creating a first round matchup with 21 seed Round Lake, who is winless on the season. The winner will move on to face Conant High School in Deerfield. Conant, the 5 seed, would then pair the Scouts (or Cougars) in a possible rematch with Libertyville. Coach LaScala’s team is the 6th best team in the NSC, seeding wise, with Mundelein and Zion Benton following behind them. The Lake Zurich Sectional will pose for some very competitive basketball and a gauntlet for a battle-tested team to come out on top. The sectional bracket is as follows, courtesy of @LFHoops’ twitter account.