Clark, Lakes looking sharp

Right before the holiday break, Lakes Junior Direll Clark started to find his scoring touch.

After a 26-point effort in a wild double overtime loss to North Chicago, Clark showed not a single sign of rust following a 10-day layoff.

In opening-round play of Grant's holiday tournament, Clark led the Eagles again in scoring, but this time it came in a win. Clark scored 8 of his game-best 21 points in the third quarter to help the Eagles to a 62-56 win over Grayslake North.

The win avenges a 49-42 setback to the Knights 2 weeks ago.

"It really started with his game against North Chicago," said Lakes coach Chris Snyder. "Direll has the ability and he has the skill to be able to go out and perform like that each night."

Clark helped Lakes (7-5) break open a tight game in the third quarter. Just before the end of the third quarter, a steal from Andrew Spencer set up Clark for a layup. Then Clark came flying in from clear across the court to block a shot by the Knights' Ben Guhl. His subsequent rebound and feed to Tanner Blain gave the Eagles the lead for good at 43-39.

"I saw the play develop and I knew I had to get over and make a stop," Clark said. "I tried to get to the ball and make a play and it worked out."

Grayslake North (6-3) refused to go quietly and it was the play of senior Mark Hall that kept the Knights in the game. At one point in the final quarter, Hall scored 8 straight points for the Knights as part of his career-best 19-point night.

"When (Mark) made a 3 early, you could tell that he was going to shoot well tonight and he really carried us," said Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh. "Mark is a talented player and he can score for us in a number of ways."

The Knights closed to within 1 point twice in the final two minutes but could't grab the lead.

"Give credit to Lakes," Grunloh said of this time versus two weeks ago. "They did a great job of finding the open spots in our defense and making better decisions with the ball than last time."

Junior Justin Bergeron (13 points) and Senior Justin Schneider (11 points) were in double figures for the Eagles. Guhl (11 points) and Danny Mateling (13 points) paced the Knights.

Grant 53, Round Lake 28: The hosts wasted little time in seizing control of the final contest of Day 1 at Grant's holiday tournament.

The Bulldogs outscored Round Lake 18-5 in the second quarter and rolled from there to a 53-28 win.

The win was the third in four games for Grant (6-4). Round Lake falls to 3-8.

"I think one thing we have done well as of late is move the ball," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "I thought our big guys moved very will without the ball and Sean (Wells) and (Allen) Lewis did a great job getting the ball inside."

Wells and Lewis had one big target that dominated the low-post in senior Jared Helmich. He scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the first half as the Bulldogs built a 29-11 lead at intermission.

"For us it still comes down to being able to make shots and execute on offense," Round Lake coach Jimmy Roberts said. "We know that we can defend well and take care of the ball, but it comes down to making shots when you get your chance, and we struggled."

Round Lake hit on just 11 of 42 from the field but still was able to get the game within 42-28 early in the fourth quarter. A long 3-pointer by Juddon Carter (6 points) brought the Panthers as close as they had been all night. But the hosts had an answer.

Grant scored the next 8 points including a pair of Helmich buckets and the lead never dropped below 20 the rest of the way.

"I called a timeout there when we got it to 14 then I called another a few minutes later and it was 20 again," Roberts said. "It goes in spurts, when we miss a couple it seems like everyone struggles."

Helmich and his teammates, meanwhile, were red-hot from the start. The Bulldogs nailed their first 5 shots of the second quarter to build on an already big lead. Wells contributed 9 of his 15 points in the quarter and Lewis added 11 to go with his 6 assists.

"I don't know how many assists we had versus turnovers, but I thought the guys did an excellent job of taking care of the ball tonight," Bosworth said. "You can see the chemistry the last few games starting to come together."

Junior Mark Jennings led the Panthers in scoring with 12 points.