Olsen's clutch 3 sparks Grant

Grant had yet to play a road game in 2009 prior to Friday night.

No worries for the Bulldogs.

Well, not after a big third quarter anyway.

Grant defeated host Wauconda 57-43 in a North Suburban Prairie Division contest.

Gilbert Sheehan led Grant (11-5, 5-2) with 22 points and 8 rebounds, while Garrett Olsen chipped in 17 points and 6 boards.

"I've got confidence in these guys in most games in our division," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "Anytime we get a win on the road I'm happy with it."

Wauconda (3-15, 0-7) kept the game close the entire first half. Olsen swung momentum in favor of Grant by hitting a 3-pointer with three seconds left before halftime to snap a 27-27 tie.

"There's a momentum (swing) if you can break a tie going into halftime," Olson said. "If you can go get a lead like that, you can take momentum. It helped us a lot."

Grant indeed built on Olsen's 3. The visitors put together a 12-1 run, with Shane Richardson hitting a short jumper for a 42-28 lead with 1:10 remaining in the third quarter.

"We tried to change things around to throw (Wauconda) off a little bit," Bosworth said. "We messed around with our press and our offense.

"A match-up zone (which Wauconda played) is never fun to play against. We had to fight back and deal with it."

Grant took a 12-point advantage into the final quarter and never looked back.

Wauconda was in search of its second straight win after topping Carmel in overtime on Wednesday night.

Wauconda trailed Grant 15-9 in the second quarter when Matt Stonis got hot. He scored 10 of his team-high 19 points during a 14-6 run and Wauconda led 23-21 with 2:25 left before the break.

The lead changed hands over the next couple of minutes until Olsen hit his clutch 3.

"First half, we were able to run an offense," said Wauconda coach Rich Wolf, whose team was a perfect 7 of 7 from the field in the second quarter. "We were able to get Matt some good looks and get some buckets in transition.

"We stopped that in the second half. Grant beat us to the basketball and we let things get away from us. Grant sped up the game and put pressure on us."

Braden Prate added 14 points for Wauconda.