Grayslake Central has its way

It was already obvious by the fourth quarter.

But when big, burly, 6-foot-7 Grayslake Central center Troy Manley entered in the final minutes of Tuesday's game against Grayslake North and nonchalantly drained a 3-pointer, the very first trey of his basketball career, it was even more crystal clear.

It was the Rams' night, all the way around.

"That's a good night for us when Troy knocks down a 3," Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe said with a laugh.

Indeed, just about everything went right for the host Rams, who cruised to a 67-45 Fox Valley Conference Fox Division victory over their crosstown rival to move to 17-9 overall (6-3 Fox).

Grayslake North drops to 9-16 overall and 1-8 in the Fox.

Ironically, the Rams worried before the game that their night could actually go terribly wrong. After all, they entered the game without senior point guard Mike Brumm running the show. He was serving a one-game suspension for being ejected from a game against Johnsburg last weekend for fighting.

He sat on the Rams' bench in a sleek black suit with a green shirt.

"Obviously, not having Brumm hurts," said Grayslake Central senior guard Kevin O'Rourke. "But it's not about one person. We were able to come together as a team and get the job done."

O'Rourke led the way there, along with junior forward Josh Rappaport. They each tallied a game-high 17 points and, between the two of them, were able to turn a fairly close game in the first half into a blow out after the break.

O'Rourke and Rappaport scored 13 and 11 points respectively in the third quarter alone to turn Grayslake Central's 9-point halftime lead into a daunting 23-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

"They don't miss. Even shots that look kind of awkward-go in," Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said of Grayslake Central as a whole. "Tonight they shot the ball really well.

"They're just solid, a solid team. We told our kids that we know how good Brumm is, but they have 10 or 11 kids who could start on teams throughout this area. There's no drop off. They're a really deep team."

Ten players scored for Grayslake Central, which played 15 guys.

By the time Manley came off the bench to get his minutes, the game was already well in hand.

But that didn't stop the crowd from fully acknowledging the big man's perimeter play.

"I practice the threes all the time in practice. But this is the first one I've ever taken in a varsity game-so I'm 1-for-1," Manley said through a wide grin. "I just had the open shot and took it. Why not? Nothing to lose, we were up by 20."

Thanks to some hard-nosed defense and pretty baskets by Grant Henricksen, Brandon Schroth and Matt Pucher, Grayslake North tied the game midway through the second quarter at 21 points apiece. But the Knights were unable to pull away from there.

Instead, Grayslake Central closed out the quarter on a 12-3 run.

"I think it just took us a little bit to get in the flow without Brumm playing for the night," Moe said. "But once we got used to that and figured out what we were doing, we did a nice job of adjusting.

"Not having him, and having not played all that well in a while, we were very nervous heading into this game. But I think our kids really stepped up and did a nice job."

O'Rourke and Rappaport were the Rams' only double figure scorers. But Alex Anderson and Darius Dacanay, who shared Brumm's point guard responsibilities with Mike Brocious, each added 7 points. Grayslake North was led by five players who each scored 6 points - Henricksen, Schroth. Pucher, Michael Verwijst and Teddy Ludwick.