Potkonjak (33 points), Antioch have that winning feeling

The popular Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" blasted over the loudspeaker during halftime of Tuesday's first-round Class 3A regional girls basketball game between Antioch and Grayslake North at Lakes.

Considering that the main line is "I gotta feeling-that tonight's going to be a good night," it seemed perfect for the occasion.

Because long before game time, Antioch's Andi Potkonjak had a feeling that she and her teammates were in for a good night.

She just had no idea how good.

Potkonjak was so good that she barely missed as she poured in a career-high 33 points, including seven 3-pointers to lead the second-seeded Sequoits to a 58-50 victory over No. 3 Grayslake North.

Antioch, which moves to 14-13, advances to Thursday's regional championship at Lakes and will face top-seeded Johnsburg, an 83-28 winner over Richmond-Burton in the earlier game of the night.

Grayslake North wraps up its season with a 12-17 record.

"Before the game, I felt great," said Potkonjak, who was averaging about 17 points per game prior to the contest. "I felt like this was the game that we were going to come out and play really well and I felt that this was a game that I was going to do something really good.

"This is the best game by far that I've ever played. I was just on. It was amazing to me."

Amazing doesn't even begin to describe Potkonjak's performance, particularly in the first half.

She carried Antioch to a commanding 31-18 halftime advantage by reeling off 23 points. Along the way, Potkonjak was nearly perfect, connecting on 8-of-10 shots, including 5-of-6 3-pointers.

For the game, Potkonjak, who scored all 13 of Antioch's first-quarter points and its first 18 points overall, hit 11-of-19 field goals and 7-of-11 treys.

"Andi turned it on," Antioch coach Tim Borries said. "She was in a zone and she just kept shooting. It was nice to watch."

What wasn't so nice for Borries to watch was the way Grayslake North unexpectedly got back into the game.

The Sequoits had extended their lead to as many as 16 points (46-30) early in the fourth quarter and seemed poised to coast to victory on cruise control.

But Grayslake North turned up the defensive pressure and was suddenly forcing turnover after Antioch turnover.

The Sequoits, who had 8 turnovers in the first three quarters combined, coughed up the ball nine times in the fourth quarter alone.

With just under a minute to play, the opportunistic Knights had actually cut their deficit to 53-48.

"At halftime, me and Bri (Brianna Leon) told the team that we had worked so hard all season trying to get teams to respect us and that we needed to keep fighting," said Grayslake North senior forward Lauren Erickson, who finished with 11 points, including two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. "We just said to never give up and we didn't."

The Knights were even without their leading scorer for the entire game. Sophomore Kinsey Siler, who is averaging 15 points per game, has been out for the last week dealing with some personal issues.

"I'm very proud of how we fought back into the game," said Grayslake North coach Jim Sarver, who got a team-high 12 points out of sophomore guard Katie McGrath. "We just started realizing that we could play at (Antioch's) speed. We let them dictate speed early on and we weren't playing fast (enough). But when we realized that we could play that way, (Antioch) started having trouble."

Still, Antioch's troubles couldn't compare to the kind of trouble Potkonjak spelled for Grayslake North.

"She was unbelievable," Sarver said of Potkonjak. "You don't see that kind of performance too often in high school sports. She made 'em all."