Grant’s seniors savor sweet victory
It’s tradition at Grant for balloons and streamers to decorate the gym on senior day for the girls basketball team.
The underclassmen also have been known to make artsy, glittery posters for each senior player that includes her name and jersey number.
But this year, the “party planners” didn’t stop there. The locker room was fully decorated and homemade baked goods such as cupcakes and cookies were served as a postgame treat.
“Our underclassmen did all this. They went all out. I can’t believe they even decorated the locker room, and that they made food for us,” Grant senior forward Bri Miller said. “They made everything so nice. I can’t thank them enough.”
Clutch contributions from just about every senior in Grant’s thorough 47-27 victory over Round Lake is likely all the thanks the underclassmen needed.
Miller, with 8 points, was among six seniors to score and play major minutes for the Bulldogs, who improve to 8-17 overall and 6-6 in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division.
Grant used its depth and balance to wear down Round Lake, which drops to 5-21 overall and 0-12 in the division. Twelve Bulldogs played and 10 scored, including senior guard Brittany Glover, who finished with a team-high 9 points.
“We were just able to work as a team,” said senior guard Morgan Jahnke, who finished with 7 points. “It’s bittersweet because this is senior day and it’s one of our last games together at home. But we had fun. We were all wanting everyone to score.”
Jahnke scored 5 straight points during Grant’s 13-4 run in the second quarter that helped to open up its 20-8 halftime lead. The Bulldogs then got a big third quarter from senior guard Kassie Stimpson (6 points) and junior guard Taylor Rossi (5 points) to push their lead to 21 points heading into the fourth quarter.
“Grant plays a lot of girls and they’re playing really well right now,” Round Lake coach Howard Conkling said. “They beat us a couple of weeks ago and ever since then, they’ve been playing with more confidence.”
The Bulldogs’ confidence was shaken early in the season. They lost 11 of their first 13 games. But lately, they’ve gotten into a nice rhythm and have won three of their last four games.
“The last two weeks, the kids have come to practice really focused and you can see there’s a purpose for why they are there,” Grant coach Matt Lukemeyer said. “We tried to change the way we played a bit, more up-tempo and trying to get more shots up. Before, we were kind of slowing it down and that wasn’t working. Now, it’s if you have an open shot, shoot it. I think the girls are having more fun with that.”
The Bulldogs’ up-tempo offense also seems to spark a more up-tempo approach to defense. They relentlessly chased Round Lake all over the floor, and that wound up leading to many of Round Lake’s 25 turnovers.
“We’ve got a lot of younger players and that’s part of it,” Conkling said. “We turned the ball over way too much and we just had trouble making shots. We’ve had trouble with that all season.”
Round Lake got a team-high 6 points out of both senior forward Adrianna Pitts and junior forward Aaliyah Chastang.