A healing victory for Boyle, Grayslake Central

The two hours each day in the trainer’s room the last couple of weeks to rehab his achy ankle were worth it for Casey Boyle.

And what was Grayslake Central’s 6-foot-9 senior doing after his team’s 52-47 win over visiting Huntley in the teams’ Fox Valley Conference first-place positional crossover Friday night?

Going home to rehab his achy ankle.

“Got to go back to the house and ice it — 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off,” said Boyle, who hadn’t played since suffering a grade-2 sprain of his left ankle against Crystal Lake Central on Valentine’s Day. “It’s been my life for the past week.”

Worth it.

While the Rams’ victory didn’t give the FVC Fox Division champions the official conference championship, it was much-welcomed considering they had lost three of their last four games. Grayslake Central improved to 19-8, while FVC Valley champ Huntley saw its nine-game winning streak snapped and fell to 24-3.

“For my money, that’s the way you would want to end the (regular) season,” Rams coach Brian Moe said. “You play a great team that’s well-coached in a playoff atmosphere.”

Boyle, who had sat out Grayslake Central’s last three games as the Rams took a conservative approach with their star pivot, had no plans on missing the game.

“That was a huge win for us,” Boyle said. “I’ve been marking this game on our calender since the beginning of the season. I knew that we would win (the FVC Fox), and I knew Huntley was a really good team. (Nos.) 32 (Amanze Egekeze), 15 (Bryce Only) and 20 (Troy Miller) are all great players. I knew that we were going to play them at the end of the year. We really wanted this game to prove to ourselves that we can play at this level.”

Miller’s two 3-pointers helped Huntley take a 16-15 lead into the second quarter, and the Red Raiders still led 24-23 after the 6-6 sophomore Egekeze (12 points) sank a turnaround jumper in the lane with 2:43 left before halftime.

But Boyle kissed a 15-footer off the glass, and Danny Reed finished a 9-4 run by the hosts with a 3 to beat the buzzer, putting the Rams up 32-28.

“I thought the first half was the difference,” Huntley coach Marty Manning said. “We had some guys who weren’t there mentally and, in turn, we weren’t there physically. (Grayslake Central) took advantage of it, especially with offensive rebounds. ... They scored 32 points in the first half. We usually give up 32 points in a game.”

Only kept the Red Raiders close after halftime, scoring all of their 8 points in the third quarter, as the junior guard used his 6-foot-1 athletic frame to post up and finish at the basket.

Only finished with a game-high 16 points.

“The best trait about Bryce is he’s a competitor,” Manning said. “He’s not one to back down. He’s going to fight and prove how tough he is. If we had eight guys who played like that, it would have been a different outcome tonight.”

Reed, who led Grayslake Central with 14 points, knocked down his second 3 early in the fourth to build the Rams’ lead to 42-38, but Huntley stayed close. Miller (9 points, 5 assists) hit his third 3-pointer to pull the Red Raiders within 47-45 with 37 seconds left.

Grayslake Central held on as Boyle and Jordan Taylor combined to go 5 of 6 from the foul line in the final 29 seconds.

“Against a team like that, it’s too late to try to turn it on the second half,” Only said. “You have to be ready from the get-go.”

Boyle and Taylor both finished with 10 points. Savonte McWilliams added 6 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Boyle sank 4 of 4 free throws in the final 49 seconds.

“(The ankle) is about 80, 90 percent right now,” said Boyle, who shot 3 of 4 from the floor. “I don’t have all my explosiveness. I can’t jump as high, but everything else I can pretty much do.”

“He had a better chance of blowing out a knee or breaking a shin than rolling an ankle with all that tape and bracing that was on there,” Moe joked. “I think that just kind of limited his mobility a little bit.

“He played a great game,” Moe added. “He posted up strong, got some nice finishes inside, drew a double-team and found open guys for shots.”