The Lake Zurich boys basketball team has been searching for more offense as the regular season winds down.
That’s why coach Billy Pitcher made the decision to insert 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Ryan Kutsor into his starting lineup.
“We were struggling and not having our best games over the past few weeks,” Pitcher said. “So I decided to plug him in to our starting rotation hoping he’d give us a little bit of a boost. So far, he has. He can shoot the three, he can drive, he can post up. He’s got good size and ball-handling. So he’s just an all-around player — a complete player.”
Kutsor had a career-high 20 points in a game against Warren earlier this month and helped get the Bears out to a quick first-quarter lead during their 53-33 win over Mundelein on Saturday, Feb. 6. He used a hesitation dribble move to beat his defender twice, racing to the rim for a pair of easy layups.
“The biggest improvement I’ve seen from Ryan is probably in his confidence,” Pitcher said. “He’s really grown to trust his skill and instinct every game. He just continues to grow as a player and is one of those kids with a huge upside.”
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According to Kutsor, who is in his first year at the varsity level, it took time to adjust from the sophomore and junior varsity games he played in a year ago.
“I’ve learned that you can’t be tentative,” Kutsor said. “If you’re tentative in any aspect of your game — offense, defense, anything — you’re gonna get eaten up at the varsity level.”
Senior teammate Nick Penny said there’s one other key ingredient to Kutsor’s game.
“He plays outstanding defense,” said Penny, who had a team-high 20 points against Mundelein. “We always knew he could score, and for the majority of the year, we knew we had a real nice reliable scorer off the bench before he became a starter. But we’ve found out he can do a lot of other things for us.
“He had a couple of big blocks against Warren. He knows how to box out and pull down boards at the guard position, and that little bit of extra size helps him with that. And last game he was playing in the middle of a 2-3 zone for us at times. He’s just a Swiss Army knife for our team.”
Lake Zurich’s 20-point victory over the Mustangs was critical. It kept the Bears’ North Suburban Lake title hopes alive. The Bears (18-7, 6-3) trail first-place Stevenson by a game in the loss column and are scheduled to face the Patriots on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The Bears already beat Stevenson once earlier this season.
“I wasn’t real pleased with how we played tonight, but it keeps us in the hunt,” Pitcher said.
Game notes
Bears junior guard Michael Bens had 14 points while junior guard Michael Hensley (six points) made three of his four field goal attempts.
The Mustangs, who committed just two first-half turnovers and held the Bears to 12-for-29 shooting during the opening 16 minutes, got a team-best 14 points, six rebounds and two steals from junior guard Aaron Woolford.
Tim Froehlig is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @TFroehlig