Jessop, Dahlstrom pace Grayslake Central win

A couple of Grayslake Central girls basketball players recorded career-highs and were able to high-five with their teammates for the first time this season.

Senior Skyler Jessop connected for 22 points and sophomore Morgan Dahlstrom, playing in only her third varsity game, added 14 as the Rams notched their first win in the Bison Classic on Tuesday night at Maine South High School in Park Ridge.

Jessop also connected for a personal-high 4 3-pointers as the Rams jumped ahead 14-5 and never looked back in a 50-40 triumph over tourney host Buffalo Grove.

“We mentioned Skyler Jessop to our girls before the game, at halftime, at quarter breaks and during timeouts,” said Bison coach Pat Dudle. “But it’s that old saying, ‘talk is cheap.’ She took advantage of whatever she could.”

Rams coach Steve Ikenn was glad to see his girls take advantage of what they worked on in practice.

“We worked with our posts trying to get better position inside than they were in our first games with our guards doing a better job getting them the ball,” he said. “We needed better balance that way.”

Jessop’s outside shooting ad Dahlstrom’s inside work kept the Bison off balance.

“They outplayed us,” said Dudle, whose team (1-2) was led by junior Bailey North’s 17 points while guards Kim Herzog and Emily Cho each added 9.

Dahlstrom’s 14 points came after two games in which the sophomore scored under 5 points.

“We’ve been waiting for her,” Jessop said. “Everyone knows she can be a big scorer and a big part of our team. She might have been a little nervous the first two games. She brought it this game and hopefully will keep it going.”

Jessop and the Rams (1-2) kept things going for nearly all four quarters Tuesday.

“It was nice to see what we did in practice paid off,” Ikenn said. “We had a real nice team game on both ends of the floor.”

Senior Claire Brennan added 7 points and 4 rebounds for the Rams while senior teammate Emma Shepard chipped in 5 points.

The Rams’ first two losses were to state-ranked Maine South and Libertyville.

“Finally we got a win,” Jessop said. “We had been a little lackluster on offense, just standing around. But now we got the posts more involved and that opens up more things for the guards.”

Herzog, a 5-foot-5 sophomore guard for BG, was 5-for-5 at the free throw line.

“Kimmy continues to give us a spark off the bench,” Dudle said. “She is starting to play with confidence.”

North is also playing a confident inside game.

“Bailey’s off-season work is paying off,” Dudle said. “She has had a great start to the season.”

The Rams hope more wins like Tuesday are in store this season

“Skyler (4 rebounds) had a great game,” Ikenn said. “She did a great job defensively, too and handling the ball. She is a fierce competitor.

“And Morgan (3 rebounds) had a great game in the post. She was one we worked on getting the ball to and getting her to go to the basket. She is playing with more confidence.”

Ikenn stressed three objective prior to the game,

“We wanted to come out energy, poise and execute,” he said “And I thought we did all of them.”