Blue Devils Classic wins for Lake Forest, Grayslake C.

Four possessions. Last season.

That's when Lake Forest sophomore guard Halle Douglass, then a freshman, earned her leadership stripes.

"It was the regional championship last year," Lake Forest girls basketball coach Kyle Wilhelm said. "Four possessions in a row, we put the ball in the hands of a freshman in our most important game and Halle really did a great job. Ever since, she's used that to propel her forward.

"You can see it when she plays now. She does everything. She does a great job defensively, she runs the offense. She can hit step-back 3s, she can post up and she finishes at the rim. She does a great job of facilitating and even as just a sophomore, everyone is leaning on her. She does a great job with that."

The regional coming-out party for Douglass was perfect timing, actually.

The Scouts needed some leaders-in-waiting to step up. They lost two of their top three scorers from last season to graduation. And the third, Maeve Summerville, now a senior, blew out her knee during summer basketball.

Summerville, a 6-foot-1 forward who will be playing at DePauw University next year, now sits the bench in street clothes. She could only cheer as Douglass led Lake Forest to a 42-32 win over Carmel on Friday at the Blue Devil Classic at Warren.

Lake Forest, now 11-6 on the season and 4-0 in the tournament, will face Warren on Saturday and would win the tournament championship with a win. The North Suburban Conference foes will have faced each other six times in the last 18 months, and Lake Forest holds a 3-2 edge.

"I see myself as a leader on this team for sure," said Douglass, who scored a team-high 12 points against Carmel. "Especially with Maeve being out, she was going to be our biggest leader. Without her, someone else has to take up that role and I just think I have to keep working to be in that role.

"It's difficult without Maeve, but I think everyone else is doing their best to fill what we're missing not having her. We've still been very successful."

The Scouts, up just 2 points at halftime (24-22), did more in the second half to take advantage of their bigger, taller roster and push the ball inside. Douglass, Jen Whittington, a 6-foot-forward, and Ellie Pearson, a 6-foot-1 forward, combined for 13 points, mostly in the paint, as Lake Forest extended its lead to 8 points (38-30) by the end of the third quarter.

"Obviously they had a huge size advantage inside," said Carmel coach Ben Berg, whose team drops to 9-8 overall and 2-2 in the tournament. "They did a nice job of getting the ball to every mismatch they had inside. We were out-sized at every single position. We struggled with that."

Whittington and Pearson finished with 11 points apiece for Lake Forest.

Carmel, which scored only 2 fourth-quarter points (on a shot by Shai Horton, 7 total points) was kept in the game in the first half by sophomore guard Ranya Jamison. She scored 10 of her 13 points before halftime. She finished with four 3-pointers.

Jamsion was the only player to reach double-figures for the Corsairs.

"Ranya played her heart out today. She played great and she's only a sophomore," Berg said. "We needed to give her a little more help today and we didn't. Usually we get that help from other girls."

Grayslake Central 39, Warren 37: The goal is 40.

And Grayslake Central was even better than its goal.

The Rams wanted to hold Warren to 40 points or less Friday at the Blue Devil Classic.

Not an easy feat when Warren has two Division I superstars on its roster.

But tough defense carried the Rams in perhaps their biggest win of the season.

"Defense is always our main thing," said Grayslake Central guard Rosie Drevline, who scored a team-high 13 points, including two 3-pointers. "We tried to put the pressure on their main players, because they really put the pressure on us."

Kaylen Dickson (Wake Forest) and Jordyn Hughes (Eastern Illinois) scored 15 points and 11 points respectively for Warren, but Grayslake Central, which improves to 10-6 overall and 3-1 in the tournament, had more balanced scoring.

Kate Bullman and Payton Gosell each had 7 points for the Rams while three other players added 4 points apiece.

Hughes actually was in a position to tie the game for Warren when she was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 0.8 seconds remaining. Had she made all 3 free throws, the game would have gone into overtime. But she made the first and missed the second.

"Obviously, I'm going to put the game on myself, that's just how I am. I put my heart into the game and I'll do anything for it," Hughes said. "It's a little tough. You make 10-for-10 on free throws all the time in practice and then missing those important free throws like that in a game is so hard right now. Those are the ones that need to go in."

Hughes tried to purposely miss the third free throw so that she or one of her teammates could try for an offensive putback, but she was called for a lane violation.

The loss drops Warren, which was without head coach John Stanczykiewicz, who was at a family wedding, to 11-5 overall and 3-1 in the tournament.

"We gutted it out," Grayslake Central coach Steve Ikenn said. "All of our players just believe in our defense. I've always preached that defense is what wins games. And they've all bought into it. Our players get frustrated when we give up 40. That's our goal is to hold teams under 40 every time.

"I don't know if this is a statement win for us, but this is a really good (win) for us."