Ludwick, Grayslake North stop Antioch

Defense, defense, defense.

That's nearly all Teddy Ludwick has heard for the last two years.

The Grayslake North senior guard was brought up to the varsity early in his sophomore year because the Knights needed an offensive spark and he had been lighting up in the sophomore games.

“At the time, Teddy was scoring a lot, but he really wasn't playing any defense,” Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said. “I told him that if you don't play defense up here (on varsity), you're not playing.”

Apparently, that message came through loud and clear.

“All I did was tell him that and he's been completely committed to defense ever since,” Grunloh said of Ludwick. “Usually, that's a tough sell to tell an offensive kid that you've got to play defense or you're not playing. But I think Teddy realized that, being a sophomore, he needed to earn those minutes and he could do that by playing really good defense. And now, Teddy is a great defender.”

But, luckily for the Knights, Ludwick's newfound aptitude on defense hasn't come at the expense of his offense.

Ludwick showed on Saturday night what gained him some notoriety in the first place.

He poured in a game- and career-high 29 points to lead visiting Grayslake North to a 56-46 nonconference victory over Antioch.

The win moves Grayslake North to 5-1 on the season, its best start through six games in school history. Meanwhile, Antioch drops to 0-5.

“It's kind of exciting,” Ludwick said of his gaudy stat line, which included 2 impressive three-pointers. One came from several feet beyond the arc and the other, just seconds later, was shot off-balance but hit nothing but net as the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter.

“Sometimes I just kind of feel that when shots aren't falling for us, I just need to get to the basket and get my offense going and kind of put the team on my back a little bit.”

Ludwick did just that in the third quarter, when he broke up a 23-23 halftime tie with three quick baskets, one of which included a layup directly off of one of his steals.

Antioch finished with 20 turnovers on the night and Ludwick had a hand in many of them.

“Defense has been my weakness and Coach (Grunloh) has definitely been on me about that,” Ludwick said. “He knows I can put the ball in the hoop. But I just have to be able to stop the guy I'm guarding from doing the same thing.

“I think I've definitely improved on that. I've gotten a lot stronger and quicker and I take defense more seriously than I used to. I really push myself.”

Ludwick pushed the Knights ahead 41-38 with his three-pointer at the end of the third quarter and that momentum stayed their way. Grayslake North opened the fourth quarter with a 10-2 run that pushed its lead to 51-40 with only a few minutes remaining.

Ludwick scored 4 of the 10 points and also fed senior center David Sparks a pretty pass that led to an easy layup. Sparks was the only other player in double-figures for the Knights. He had 10 points.

“It takes the wind out of you when you tell the guys over and over what's going to happen and they let it happen anyway,” Antioch coach Mike Skinner said, alluding to the fact that his team knew about Ludwick's offensive explosiveness, but didn't key on him like they should have. “It's kind of like being a parent and you tell your kids something that you've experienced that you don't want them to experience, but they still do it.

“I told our guys that (Ludwick) shoots threes and we need to take that away from him, and keep him from scoring. And what does he do? He shoots a couple of big 3's and he also gets 29 points. He beat us by himself. That makes us a ‘not-smart' team.”

Antioch, which got a team-high 11 points from Ryan Hartman and 10 points from William Waschow, was also a team playing at less than full strength.

Junior forward Karl Nettgen was just coming back from a knee injury and senior starters Mike Barakat and Mike Siperko are serving the second of a four-game suspension for code of conduct violations.

The fact that the Sequoits are still winless just adds to their frustrations.

“It's an uphill battle right now because if you look at our five game tapes, you'll see the same mistakes in all five games,” Skinner said. “We have to become a smarter basketball team.”