Waszkowski, Grant put the hurt on Antioch

The knees felt good on Tuesday night.

That hasn't always been the case for Hunter Waszkowski. The Grant junior forward has been playing on a sore knee for much of this season.

"At the beginning of the season, before the Thanksgiving tournament, I sprained my MCL and then during the tournament, I re-hurt it. And then during the Jacobs tournament (at Christmas), I re-injured it again.

"But finally it's good now."

Waszkowski, playing relatively pain-free for a change, was certainly very good at Antioch. He pumped in 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to help Grant get a 64-56 Northern Lake County Conference victory against the Sequoits.

The Bulldogs, who got a team-high 20 points from senior guard Michael Huff, improve to 9-11 on the season and 6-2 in the NLCC, where they are in second place behind North Chicago. Antioch, which got a game-high 27 points out of junior guard Dan Filippone, drops to 8-11 overall and 2-7 in the league.

"Hunter has had problems with his knees and he's had to guard guys sometimes twice his size in the post," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said of the 6-foot-3 Waszkowski. "He's had to put his big-boy pants on and get physical and do his best."

Waszkowski has also had to spend a lot of time in the training room to keep his knees in good enough shape to play heavy minutes and maintain his spot in the starting lineup. He hasn't missed any games due to his knee injury.

"The athletic trainer at Grant has helped me rehab it every day. Before practice, after practice," Waszkowski said. "I was really worried but it's worked out."

Grant was down 17-11 at the end of the first quarter but took a 1-point lead into the halftime locker room by out-scoring Antioch 14-7 in the second quarter. The Sequoits went scoreless for the first seven minutes of the second quarter.

"We were stuck on 17 for a long time," Antioch coach Jim White said. "One of our game goals is to not have more than three possessions in a row where we don't get something. We had trouble with that in that second quarter. That's a tough one to rebound from and recover from. But we did."

Grant built a 10-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but Antioch cut that to just 1 point with about 2 minutes left on a 3-pointer by Filippone.

But a big 3-pointer by Torren Curry put Grant back up by 4 (56-52) and in control again. For good. The Bulldogs then hit six straight free throws, four by Curry, to close out the game.

Curry finished with 14 points and two 3-pointers while Huff drained four 3-pointers.

"We hit some really big shots down the stretch," Boswoth said. "But give Antioch credit. They played really hard and they gave us some fits."

Henry Kusiak also finished in double-figures for Grant with 11 points. And Antioch's only other double-figure scorer besides Filippone was Andrew Hare. He had 12 points.