Underrated Amar Augillard leads Zion-Benton past Lake Forest

Most players with Amar Augillard’s ability would be yearning for the spotlight, desperate to have their name mentioned alongside Rolling Meadows’ Max Christie and Fenwick’s Bryce Hopkins as one of the top players in the junior class.

But that just isn’t how things go in Zion-Benton. Before Augillard it was Admiral Schofield and Milik Yarbrough that flew under the radar up north.

“Shhhh,” said Zee-Bees coach Bob Worthington. “Nobody needs to hear about it right now. But people should figure we always have somebody.”

Augillard, a 6-5 guard, scored 18 points to lead Zion-Benton to a 56-54 win against host Lake Forest on Tuesday. He’s averaging 25 points this season, a total that can match or beat nearly any player in the state.

“It doesn’t bother me,” Augillard said. “I like staying under the radar. When they see me play it is a whole new thing.”

Two of Augillard’s buckets in the first half were stunning, high-level shots that few high school players can manage.

But it isn’t all Augillard for the Zee-Bees (17-10, 7-5 North Suburban). Senior Damontae Taylor is averaging 20 points and finished with 17 against the Scouts (16-11, 7-5).

“[Taylor and Augillard] have really matured,” Worthington said. “They’ve worked on their games. They are both very coachable and have started to help everyone else on the team get better.”

Lake Forest stayed within three points for the entire fourth quarter but just couldn’t ever grab the lead. The Scouts out-rebounded Zion-Benton 31-16, an incredibly large rebounding advantage for the losing team.

“We saw on film that they don’t box out a ton so we just sent everyone to the boards and got extra chances,” Lake Forest junior Jack Malloy said.

Malloy finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds and sophomore Cade Nowik scored nine points.

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“We are improving,” Malloy said. “We beat Stevenson and stayed close with Mundelein, which is a great team. We are competing with everyone but we have to get it together and finish out games like this.”

Zion-Benton has also beaten a highly-ranked team this season, taking down Evanston by 19 points on the road.

“We play at [Evanston’s] level, we practice at that level,” Worthington said. “We just want to be consistent and stay at that level. We are going to surprise some people.”

Lake Forest and Zion-Benton are unlikely to grab top four seeds in the Prospect Sectional later this week, but both teams have the ability to knock off anyone in the field.

“We’re playing our best basketball right now but we’ve been playing pretty good since December,” Worthington said. “We’ve been competing with everyone. Bogan blew us out of the gym when we didn’t have [Taylor playing]. But since he has come back from injury we have been playing really well.”