Injuries slow Wauconda again

Some might call it bad luck.

Others are wondering if the word “curse” might be more appropriate.

This year, the Wauconda boys basketball team has lost its two top scorers to injury, one right after the other.

First it was Tyler Gick. Now Kyle Ryan is out.

Both have missed multiple games, and the Bulldogs have felt their absence. They are just 6-14 on the season.

Crazy thing is, the Bulldogs experienced the same sense of loss last year.

The team’s top two scorers were both sidelined for large chunks of the season because of injuries.

First Matt Stonis went down, then Eric Hartnett.

And the year before that? Well, the Bulldogs didn’t lose their top two scorers, but they did lose one. And it happened to be their leading scorer and best all-around player, Connor Dimick.

“I’m definitely feeling very unlucky,” Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager said. “I’m waiting for our luck to swing the other way.

“Our kids have actually started talking about how maybe there is a curse. They say that if you have a good junior year, watch out for your senior year.”

After a big junior year, Dimick missed his senior year with a torn ligament in his knee. Meanwhile, Stonis and Hartnett entered their senior years last season with optimism after productive junior campaigns.

But Stonis went down prior to the first game with a severe ankle injury and missed about half the season.

Hartnett picked up the slack and was playing so well that he was on pace to break Wauconda’s season scoring record. But just as Stonis returned to the lineup, Hartnett went down with a season-ending knee injury.

This season, history is repeating itself.

Early on, the Bulldogs were without Gick, who injured his knee in a sledding accident.

Just as he made his way back into the lineup, Ryan went down with a foot injury.

Ryan, a junior who may be experiencing his part of the curse early, had been averaging nearly 12 points a game. He came down on his foot wrong in a game against Round Lake last week, taped it up and hobbled through the rest of that game.

But he’s been in a boot ever since and he did not play in Wauconda’s loss to North Chicago on Tuesday. He’ll probably be out for at least a week, maybe more.

“I sure would like to know what it’s like to have both of my top scorers on the floor at the same time,” said Luetschwager, now in his second season. “It would make a difference, especially in a close game.

“At this point, we’re just hoping that Kyle will be out for only a week and that we can finally have a full team as we finish up the regular season.”

More fish in the sea: At Grayslake North, the offense usually runs through guard Teddy Ludwick. He’s averaging about 19 points, after all.

But in a recent win against Crystal Lake Central, one of the top teams in the Fox Valley Conference, the Knights proved that they are far from a one-man team.

While Ludwick was struggling to find his shot, and scored just 8 points on the night, Grayslake North got 18 points from fellow guard AJ Fish and 14 points from center David Sparks.

“It was nice that we had some other guys step up and that we didn’t have to rely just on Teddy to beat a really good team like Crystal Lake Central,” Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said. “AJ did a great job of taking charge and giving us some great leadership.”

Grunloh says Fish’s performance under pressure reminded him of football season.

“AJ is our starting quarterback and I think the experience he gets in that position really helps him in basketball,” Grunloh said. “He’s not bothered by pressure situations in basketball because he deals with that every time he’s on the football field.”

What’s this? A lead? Earlier this month, Grayslake North rolled up a 20-point halftime lead on Johnsburg.

When the Knights sat down in the locker room for their break, they were at a loss for what to talk about.

“Teddy Ludwick (Grayslake North’s leading scorer) was like, ‘What do we talk about now?’” Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said with a laugh. “We weren’t used to having a lead at halftime and usually, we’d talk about how to get back into the game.”

Grunloh said that at the time of that Johnsburg game, the Knights had led at halftime in only one other game this season.

Not that it has mattered all that much.

Grayslake North was 9-2 heading into that Johnsburg game. The Knights are now 13-4 overall.

“It seems like we’ve played the same game all season,” Grunloh said. “We’ll be down at halftime, then we have a big third quarter and we’ll find a way to win in the end.”

That scenario played out against Crystal Lake Central, Grayslake North’s biggest victory of the season.

The Knights were down by 8 points at halftime and outscored Central 24-8 in the third quarter.

Back, but not exactly back: Ryan Barth of Libertyville is back.

And so is Shane Richardson of Grant.

Well, kind of.

While both senior guards have been recently cleared to return to action after sitting for much of the season due to injury, neither is totally back to the way they were.

Both Barth and Richardson suffered knee injuries and must learn to play under a new normal.

Five games into the season, Barth sprained his MCL ligament and was sidelined for 9 games. Richardson has yet to play a game this season. He tore his anterior cruciate ligament prior to the season.

“Knee injuries are tough to come back from,” Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. “Ryan is getting better, but he’s still not 100 percent. He can go north and south pretty well, but when it comes to cutting and making those lateral movements, it’s a struggle for him. He’s not quite able to do what he was before.”

Meanwhile, Richardson is concerned with being able to keep up like he did before.

Being out the entire season has done him no favors in the conditioning department. Before playing in a junior varsity game last weekend, it had been months since he’d played in a basketball game.

“If you’ve been out all season, you’re obviously pretty far behind,” Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. “And with the style we play, where we’re getting up and down the floor fast, we’re really working hard to get Shane back in shape.

“Shane’s probably a step slow right now, as you would be after an ACL injury. He worked his butt off in rehab to even get back this fast. You’ve got to give him credit for that. It’s amazing that he’s ready to play because we were thinking he’d be out the whole year.

“But as well as he did in rehab, he’s probably still a few weeks away from really being back. We’re just going to have to catch him up.”

Richardson is hoping to play in his first varsity game of the season on Saturday against Vernon Hills.

Good point: Point guard Ryan Barth was Libertyville’s leading scorer when he went down with a knee injury five games into the season.

So, it’s no surprise that his teammates and head coach Scott Bogumil welcomed him back with open arms upon the recent completion of his rehab.

In his first game back, Barth scored 20 points against Mundelein. It was exactly what the Wildcats were hoping they could count on from him.

But what they weren’t counting on was the confusion that came with Barth’s return.

“It was great having Ryan back but the one tough thing about it is that we kind of got used to playing without him for nine games,” Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. “Griffin Pils used to sub in for Ryan but when Ryan went down, Griffin took over that spot and did a great job with it.

“But then when Ryan came back, our guys weren’t sure what to do. Do they look to Ryan or to Griffin? Who should handle the ball? Who should run the offense? People weren’t sure if they should defer to Ryan. It was a little chaotic at times.”

Bogumil says that better meshing Barth back into the lineup alongside Pils will be a key to how well the Wildcats can finish the season.

Back on the boards: In a near-miss against North Suburban Prairie Division-leader North Chicago, rebounding was an issue for Grant.

Jared Helmich, who has been the surprise story of the season for the Bulldogs, did his part and grabbed a career-high 16 boards.

But against North Chicago, a team that constantly crashes the offensive glass, Grant could have used even more rebounding.

The Bulldogs could have used Kyle Lombardino, a 6-foot-2 senior center who made rebounding a priority before an ankle injury sidelined him for the last five games.

Lombardino is set to return for Grant’s game against visiting Vernon Hills on Saturday.

“We missed Kyle’s rebounding, that’s for sure,” Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. “He’s a strong player inside for us. It will help a lot to have him back.”

While Lombardino was gone, 6-foot-4 junior forward Ilya Kadushin filled in and gave Grant a little something different in the post. He scored 21 points against North Chicago.

“Ilya is definitely more of a scorer in there,” Bosworth said. “And Kyle is more of a rebounder. Now, we’ll be getting some of both from that position.”