Third-quarter spurt power Prairie Ridge
In a span that lasted all of 54 seconds to start the third quarter, the boys basketball game between Prairie Ridge and Grayslake Central changed.
The Wolves scored 7 unanswered points. Then it went to 9. All before the host Rams could get a shot off.
The Wolves' relentless, half-court, trapping defense kept coming until the Rams finally cracked.
Prairie Ridge outscored the hosts 12-2 to open the second half and never trailed again in defeating Grayslake Central for the second time this season, 65-54, in a Fox Valley Conference Fox Division contest Saturday night.
The loss for the Rams (8-9, 4-3) snapped their four-game winning streak.
"Prairie Ridge kept the pressure on in the first, second, third and fourth quarters," Grayslake Central coach Kosta Kougias said. "They know what they are good at and they just keep coming at you."
Grayslake Central took a 30-28 lead into halftime on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Joey Mudd (6 points). But his bucket was the last points the Rams scored until a bucket by Seth Graf (7 points) with 4:51 to go in the third quarter. By then, Prairie Ridge (9-10, 5-2) had built a 38-30 advantage.
"I think the overall effect of our pressure hurt (Grayslake)," Prairie Ridge coach Raymond Card said. "Grayslake has a lot of really good players. I thought we threw a bunch of knockout punches, and they kept coming back."
The Rams offense struggled with due to the foul trouble for David Llorens. The 6-foot-5 senior, who was coming off an 18-point effort against Woodstock, didn't attempt a shot until the start of the fourth quarter.
"He has been playing well of late so that definitely hurt us not having David in there," Kougias said.
Llorens finally started to find his mark in the fourth. After the Wolves built a 51-41 lead, Llorens (8 points) struck with his first of two long 3-pointers. His second came with 3:40 left in the game to pull the Rams within 53-49.
Llorens' pair of free throws got the hosts within 53-51 with 3:25 left, but that was as close as they got.
Prairie Ridge junior Payton Otto, who led all scorers 16 points, hit a big shot just a minute later. He then a pair of free throws to seal the win for the Wolves.
Prairie Ridge also received 11 points from Joey Kinowski and 10 from John Berg.
Jack Beckman led the Rams with 12 points, and Michael Benko added 10.