Addison Trail remains undefeated

Addison Trail forward Eric Grygo didn't let some early foul trouble get to him.

Despite being whistled for his third foul in the second quarter of Saturday's West Suburban Gold boys basketball showdown against Willowbrook and then his fourth foul in the third quarter, Grygo didn't hang his head. Instead, the senior kept his focus sharp knowing that his team would need him.

Grygo came through with some clutch points late in the game, and the Blazers' overall size in the post proved to be too much for the scrappy Warriors as host Addison Trail captured a 57-45 victory in Addison. The Blazers improved their record to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference.

"We went in expecting to be a bigger, better team but you have to give it to them," said the 6-foot-6 Grygo who led all scorers with 17 points despite only playing about half the game. "(The Warriors) were scrappy and did what they had to do. They kept it close and gave us an interesting game.

"Our team stepped up. I was pretty happy about that."

When Grygo was on the bench, junior forward Colton Noel - also 6-6 - put in some quality minutes and finished with 10 points. Guard Nick Conrad was also clutch with 13 points, including 7 in the game's final eight minutes.

"Colton came in and got some big points on some tough shots," said Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons. "Nick Conrad is the glue that holds us together - big shots and big free throws."

It was an entertaining game throughout featuring fastbreaks, sharp shooting and all-out hustle. Willowbrook (2-3, 0-1) looked to push the tempo while the Blazers wanted to slow it down to let their size take over.

The teams traded runs. The Blazers had a 7-0 spurt to take a 20-13 lead in the second quarter, but the Warriors kept it close with 3-point shooting. That was also the case in the third quarter. Matas Masys, Kevin Miller and Freddie Clay drilled 3s to keep the deficit 5 points or less. Masys scored a team-high 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Some of those quick points came off Addison Trail turnovers.

"Going into this game, I knew we were going to have to speed them up as much as possible because they wanted to slow the tempo down," said Willowbrook coach Chris Perkins. "We have been working on extending our pressure beyond the half court and that got us some easy deflections. They had turnovers and that led to some easy baskets. Pushing it in transition collapsed the defense and got some of our shooters open."

In the fourth quarter the Warriors were within 4 points early on, but the Blazers reeled off 8 unanswered points to take a 53-41 lead with 3:18 to play. Michael Williams had 4 points. Conrad sank a pair of free throws and Ryan Zygowicz scored on a drive. Grygo sealed the game with back-to-back inside buckets the final two minutes.

"With their 3-point shooters, they could have swung back - the lead could have been cut down real fast," Grygo said. "We kept going and grew our lead so that wouldn't happen."

"Their size prevailed," Perkins said. "They have a good combination of several 6-4, 6-5 guys and that kind of wore us down a little bit. They really controlled the tempo."