North Chicago gets tough against Grant
No boys basketball team in Lake County has played North Chicago any tougher than Grant the last three years.
"Every time we play Grant, they play their best game," Warhawks four-year varsity guard Pierce Coleman said. "They want to knock us off because we're always on top."
The Warhawks are again this year.
Heading into Tuesday night's Northern Lake County Conference showdown, the last five games between Grant and North Chicago had been decided by six or fewer points. It was another good game at North Chicago for one half.
Make that, 15 minutes and 57 seconds.
Coleman's buzzer-beating dunk, after Grant made a pair of free throws with 3.8 seconds left, put North Chicago up five points at halftime, and the Warhawks broke the game open in the third quarter en route to a 73-57 win.
Coleman scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, as North Chicago (14-8, 11-0) clinched a share of the NLCC championship. The Warhawks will clinch the title outright if they beat Grayslake Central on Friday or if Grant (10-12, 7-3) loses to Grayslake North that night.
Michael Huff had 21 points and 6 rebounds to lead the Bulldogs, who dropped a 62-60 decision to North Chicago last month.
"We were just 'off.' It really wasn't our game," Huff said. "We weren't focused coming into it. I could see it coming from a mile away."
Yet, Grant stayed with the Warhawks for nearly the entire first half, as Huff scored 15 points, including a 3-pointer that evened the score at 24-24 with 2:19 to go. Joe Gorden's 2 free throws in the closing seconds cut Grant's deficit to 29-26, but North Chicago pushed the ball upcourt quickly, with Coleman's baseline dunk putting an exclamation point on the Warhawks' opening-half performance.
"It was really deflating," Huff said. "It took all the momentum we had out of the game, and we were just thinking about that."
"That's just us not being in the game, focused," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "You know what they're going to do with 3 seconds on the clock. They're going to put their head down and go to the hoop. It's just a matter of us staying in front, giving ground, contesting and making them shoot a jumper. We weren't disciplined enough."
North Chicago coach Gerald Coleman never panicked in the first half.
"We go into halftime and I said, 'OK, guys, we're up by 5. Is this where we want to be?' " he said. "They answered, 'No.' We discussed what we needed to do, and we went out and did it."
Pierce Coleman opened the second-half scoring with a layup just 23 seconds in, commencing a 21-6 run that had North Chicago up 52-32 with 1:29 left in the third quarter. Coleman scored 9 points, including a pair of baskets in transition. Tyrek Cooper scored 6 of his 16 points coming off the bench in the quarter.
"We picked it up," Pierce Coleman said. "We're a really, really, really good second-half team."
Grant got within 58-45 on a Huff layup with 5:03 to go in the fourth, but Coleman burned a timeout and his team responded with 11 straight points.
Matt McGraw added 10 points and 5 rebounds for Grant coming off the bench.
Gerald Coleman was confident about his Warhawks' chances based on how they've played opponents the second time around in NLCC play.
"Starting the second round, our goal every game was that we got to show improvement," Gerald Coleman said. "We said if we're winning every game by 8-9 points, we're not improving. We got to be confident in what we do. We got to play our game, and we got to beat teams (decisively)."