Deem effort lifts Antioch

Brittany Deem claims, tongue-in-cheek surely, that she's always in shock.

She looked especially so after her driving basket with five seconds left gave Antioch's basketball team a 47-46 win over host Grant on Tuesday night.

It was a shocking turn of events, so to speak, considering Grant had taken the lead in the North Suburban Prairie Division opener just seconds earlier on Gina Cellucci's 3-pointer that brought the home fans out of their seats.

That wasn't why Deem looked so stunned, however.

"I was just shocked that I got (the basket) over that big girl," Deem said of Grant's 6-foot-2 Heather Chapman.

"I'm just still in shock."

Grant (4-3), which trailed most of the night, trailed 45-43 when Cellucci - who missed her first 7 shots from 3-point range - drained her second 3 of the fourth quarter with 13 seconds left.

"I told the girls, 'You got to be ready to close out whenever they get the ball behind the arc,' " Antioch coach Tim Borries said. "One of the adjustments we wanted to make at halftime was to eliminate the 3s. They got open a couple of times. We didn't get through the screens, and they set some good screens."

After a timeout following Cellucci's clutch 3, Antioch (3-3) got the ball to Deem, who split a trap at midcourt and drove hard to the hoop. The 5-7 guard/power forward then lifted a shot over Chapman and got it to fall.

A desperation shot from Grant at the buzzer fell well short.

"She played a lot of point guard for her summer camp team and she gained a lot of confidence," Borries said of Deem. "She's not afraid to take it to the hole, and she's very good at it."

Said Deem: "All I was thinking was, go hard to the basket, you have one shot. Either draw the foul or make it, and I made it."

"Poor defensive breakdown," Grant coach John Eiduke said. "We didn't stop the basketball."

Martha Arntson had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 2 steals for Antioch. Freshman Lindsey Gofron - who's been playing point guard ever since Andi Potkonjak tore her ACL in the Sequoits' season opener - added 11 points and 5 assists.

Cellucci's 10 points paced Grant, while Brittani Schisler added 9 and 6 rebounds. C.J. Hill grabbed 12 rebounds for the Bulldogs, who shot just 30 percent from the floor (17 of 56).

"I can't complain about our looks," Eiduke said. "The looks were fine, but when that ball's not going in, (the basket) kind of shrinks up on you and it gets harder to put it in that basket."