Grayslake Central preps for supersectional

Alex Scarbro won’t give up the basketball. No way.

So, the Grayslake Central senior brings it to every one of the Rams’ games and puts it in a safe place before tipoff.

For her 11th birthday, Scarbro received a small, autographed basketball by Kayla Ming. In 2003, Scarbro was a fifth-grader, and Ming was a senior and gigantic basketball star in Grayslake.

“It’s my good-luck charm,” Scarbro said of the ball Ming gave to her. “She wrote, ‘Remember, practice makes perfect.’

“She’s always been my idol. Forever. She always will be. That was like the best gift I may have ever gotten.”

Seven years after Ming led Grayslake to a school-record 30 wins and berth downstate, where the Rams lost to Marian Catholic in the Class AA quarterfinals, Scarbro and her teammates are in the Sweet 16 themselves. If they upset defending Class 3A state champ Montini in Monday’s 7:30 p.m. Hoffman Estates supersectional, they will get downstate. It’s something the Rams haven’t done since 2004, when Ming essentially put them on her back.

She scored 36 points in the Rams’ 60-51 upset of Glenbrook South in the Loyola University supersectional. She followed up with 30 points, despite being sick, in Grayslake’s 74-67 loss to Marian Catholic.

“Me, Alex, Maddy (Miller) ... we’d always go to the ’04 team’s games,” senior forward Kat Dickson said after the Rams beat Johnsburg 69-46 in last Thursday night’s Grayslake Central sectional final. “Now it’s our turn. Amazing. Unbelievable.”

Grayslake Central boasts a 28-3 record and has won 26 of its last 27 games, but the Rams will be underdogs Monday night. Montini is 33-1 and loaded with ability.

Point guard Whitney Holloway (14.3 ppg, 4.5 assists, 4.1 steals, 42 3-pointers) is signed with Notre Dame. Forward Whitney Adams (10.7 ppg, 5.3 rebounds, 60 3s) is headed to North Carolina. Guard Kiki Wilson (11.7 ppg, 2.6 assists, 2.8 steals, 57 3s) is a Wisconsin-Milwaukee recruit.

Montini also boasts 5-foot-10 Kasey Reaber and junior center Tianna Brown.

The team has hit 243 3-pointers.

“They’re a very talented group,” Grayslake Central coach Steve Ikenn said. “They present a lot of issues because they’ve got numerous scoring options and put a lot of pressure on you defensively. But we’re a battle-tested team, and hopefully we’ll rise to the occasion.”

Ikenn understands his girls won’t be favored to win. That’s OK with the first-year head coach and former Stevenson assistant.

Monday’s game is another step in the only prize Montini is interested in.

“They put the ladder up after we won the sectional and I asked the girls, ‘Do you want to cut the nets down?’ ” said Broncos coach Jason Nichols, “and they said, ‘Not yet.’ We’ll be excited about wins, but we have goals. We’re not there yet.”

Montini’s defense has dominated in four playoff wins, giving up 28.5 points per game. Holloway had 7 steals in the sectional final, and 6-foot-4 sophomores Diamond Thompson and Malayna Johnson combined for 13 blocks in two sectional games.

“What I told the kids was the same thing I’ve told them all year: Games aren’t played on paper. They’re played on the court,” Ikenn said. “Are we going to be able to get by playing a mediocre game? No. We’re going to have to be on our game. If we’re on our game, we present problems for them too. We have to remember that they have to stop us as well as we have to stop them.”

Grayslake Central counters with a starting five that has plenty of experience. Rams center Rebekah Llorens had a career night against Johnsburg in the sectional final, piling up 37 points and 20 rebounds. She averages nearly 15 points and 10 rebounds per game. Scarbro and fellow guard Skyler Jessop average nearly 11 points each. Savvy veterans Dickson and Miller round out the starting five.

The Rams aren’t happy just to win a sectional championship.

“The great thing about basketball is, on any given night, anything can happen,” Scarbro said. “I’d be a little concerned if you asked us to beat (Montini) 13 times. But we have to beat them only once. That’s all it takes. I think we match up pretty well with them. Maybe we won’t have (three) D-I kids, but we got a lot of kids with heart and a lot of kids who want this.”