Antioch sets trap for Grant in 'Mouse Cage'

At the University of Illinois, Assembly Hall is also known as the "House of 'Paign," a play on Champaign, the hometown of the Illini.

Many other arenas around the country - pro, college, and high school - have also adopted menacing nicknames as a way to intimidate opponents. The "Big House," the "Madhouse on Madison," the "Pit," the "Den," the "Jungle," the "Dungeon."

The list goes on and on.

And it just got longer.

Antioch High School has another name to add to the list.

"Our gym is like playing in a - mouse cage," Antioch senior guard Kyle Haley said with a smile on his face.

Welcome to the "Mouse Cage?"

Well, it's debatable just how ominous "Mouse Cage" sounds, but, for the Sequoits, their temporary home away from home has been giving them just the right amount of homecourt advantage, thank you very much.

Since late December, Antioch has been forced to play boys and girls basketball games in its auxiliary South Gym because the North Gym, its main gym located just across the hall, was flooded by an accidental water leak that ruined the hardwood.

The South Gym is teeny and tiny, with a capacity of 500. It's old (nearly 100 years), it's cramped and it's no frills, just like a - well, a mouse cage, if you will.

But no one at Antioch is complaining. The Sequoits are now 3-0 in the "Mouse Cage" after squeezing by Grant on Friday night for a 51-49 North Suburban Conference Prairie Division victory in front of a packed house that seemed twice as loud as it probably really was simply because of the cramped quarters.

Antioch, which rallied from as many as 12 points down and was up by 5 points with under a minute to play, survived a frenzied flurry by Grant over the last 20 seconds. Grant forward Shane Richardson hit a 3-pointer to cut his team's deficit to just two points with 21.4 seconds left.

The Bulldogs then forced an Antioch turnover and got the ball back when guard Tommy Bronken made a heads-up hustle play to secure a final possession for Grant.

But the Bulldogs' set play out of a timeout fell apart and they didn't get a good shot off before the final horn sounded.

"At first, I was like, ugh, the South Gym," Haley said. "But now I love it, I really love it. It's awesome. It was so loud and so fun."

But the Sequoits, who improve to 8-16 overall and 4-6 in the Prairie Division, weren't having much fun at first.

Grant (7-14, 6-4 Prairie) thumbed its nose at "The Mouse Cage Effect" en route to building a 17-6 advantage over the first quarter. The Bulldogs then went up by 12 points (26-14) midway through the second quarter on some bruising inside play by Travis Stefanowski and Jeremy Wiker.

But the Sequoits closed the second quarter with 9-1 run. And even though they were still down 27-23 at the half, the momentum was on their side and it carried into the third quarter.

"When we got here, we were all so excited to come in here and whip these guys," said Richardson, who scored a game-high 19 points for Grant. "But we just fell apart I guess."

In the meantime, Haley was getting himself together.

He scored 11 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, including 7 straight points early in the fourth quarter that helped Antioch finally take some control.

"Kyle was kind of in a slump early on (in the season)," Antioch coach Mike Skinner said. "He just had it in his mind today that he was going to shoot the ball and he shot it really well."

Antioch also got double-figures from Christopher Terzic (10 points) while Grant got 11 points from Jerry Gaylor.