Trophy a big deal to Grayslake Central
A miniature basketball, palmable for even the smallest hoopster in Warren's Blue Devil Classic, sat perched atop a wood base and awaited the winner of Thursday night's tournament finale.
The new trophy went to a new champion.
Overcoming a career-best 23 points from Warren junior guard Lexi Leneau, Grayslake Central ran its winning streak to 12 games by holding off the pesky hosts 56-49.
Warren lost to Wheeling in the tourney title game last year.
"Warren's a really good team," said Grayslake Central coach Steve Ikenn, whose Rams improved to 14-2 and completed a 5-0 run in Gurnee. "It's their home court and they're a talented team. And once Leneau gets hot, she gets hot. She was on fire. Skyler (Jessop) was hanging all over her and she was still knocking down shots."
All-tournament selection Rebekah Llorens led Grayslake Central with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while three Rams fellow all-tourney pick Jessop, Alex Scarbro and Kat Dickson each netted 11 points. Llorens sank 6 in-close shots in the second half, set up often by Jessop (4 assists).
Something else new, besides the cool 2010 trophy: The tenacity with which Grayslake Central plays defense this season.
The Rams held Warren (6-8, 3-2 tourney) to 17 points in the first half, before Leneau heated up in the third quarter, hitting her first 4 shots, including a 3-pointer.
"Our coach really emphasizes (defense)," Scarbro said.
"It's a mentality for all of us this year. We work hard on defense to produce our offense. If you can't play hard defense, you can't beat good teams."
Leneau did her best to try to help Warren recover from a 24-9 deficit in the first half.
"We weren't really playing a bad game, so to speak, but I felt someone needed to spark it up," Leneau said. "I felt like, being a captain, I had to be the person to spark everyone up and let them know that a win is possible and that we just have to play to our ability."
Warren opened the fourth with six straight points to pull within 45-43. But Scarbro gave her team a spark, answering with a drive and bank-shot bucket.
"We needed a boost so I tried to help out our offense and get one," Scarbro said. "The nice thing about our team is we have so many people that can give us a boost. We had a lot of people contribute tonight. Rebekah had a great game. Skyler had a great game. Kat. Everyone."
A putback by Llorens hiked Grayslake Central's lead to 50-43 midway through the fourth, but Warren kept coming. Leneau drained her fourth 3 and then followed a Scarbro basket with a three-point play to make it 52-49 with 1:04 left.
But that was the last basket for Warren, which has lacked consistent play this season.
"Some of that is inexperience," coach John Stanczykiewicz said.
"In some regards it's Lexi, (Amanda) Barger and Jess (Jessica Prince). Even though we were in the championship game last year, they were still not the leaders of the team. Everything to them here, like this, was new, where the pressure was on them to perform."
The junior trio did.
Prince finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds, while Barger had 10 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. Leneau also had 7 steals.
All three made the all-tournament squad.
"I can't tell you how I excited I am with how much better we've gotten in the last two weeks," Stanczykiewicz said. "I'd like to think that we're developing a little bit of a team identity. I don't know what that is yet, but we're definitely together."