Grayslake Central clinches share of NLCC title
A hot basketball team shut down a scorer who's been on an impressive run of her own lately.
Grayslake Central's 47-28 win over host Wauconda came with a bonus Wednesday night. The victory clinched a share of the Northern Lake County Conference championship for the Rams, who improved to 21-7 with their seventh win in a row and 12th in their last 13 games. Grayslake Central finished 13-1 in the NLCC, a record Grant will try to equal when it plays North Chicago in a makeup game Saturday.
"We definitely wanted to win conference this year," said Grayslake Central guard/forward Kate Bullman, who as a freshman last season helped the Rams earn a share of the inaugural NLCC title with Antioch. "We were confident going into it, but we knew we had to work hard."
Bullman led the Rams against Wauconda (13-13, 6-8) with team bests of 14 points and 7 rebounds, as well as 2 steals. The 6-foot-1 sophomore also defended high-scoring Allie Tylka all night, holding the 6-foot junior forward to a season-low 6 points and 6 rebounds.
Tylka was coming a career-best 30 points against Grant and in her last five games was averaging 27.4 points and 14.2 rebounds.
Bradley University saw her play last week.
"I was aware that she had been averaging a double-double, and I didn't want her to get that in this game," Bullman said. "We always practice a lot of help defense, and I think my teammates had a lot to do with (limiting Tylka), rotating over. I'd get in front of her, and they'd be there to stop her on the right side or the left side."
It was only the third time this season Tylka did not score in double figures. That included the last time Wauconda played Grayslake Central, as Bullman and Payton Gosell limited her to 8 points.
"They just had really good help defense every time I drove," Tylka said. "The lane was always covered. My shots weren't falling either."
Tylka shot just 1 of 11 from the floor and 3 of 10 from the foul line. She didn't make a field goal until sinking a 3-pointer with 2:47 left in the fourth quarter.
"I've just been playing my game, and tonight I didn't," Tylka said. "I thought about it a little too much."
When Tylka got past Bullman, she still had defenders to beat. Gosell helped on Tylka too.
"You can't defend a really good scorer just one on one, but I thought Kate did a real nice job on (Tylka)," Rams coach Steve Ikenn said. "Kate's a really good perimeter defender. She's got a nice wingspan, she moves her feet well, and she blocks shots. It's a luxury to have a kid like that who can play inside and outside."
Grayslake Central bolted to a 9-0 lead, as Bullman scored in the low post to open the scoring and then fed Maura Fitzgerald for a layup. The Rams' full-court press helped force 8 turnovers in the opening quarter, which ended with the visitors up 13-2.
Wauconda got a spark from 5-10 freshman Kiley Szmajda, who scored 6 of her team-high 10 points in the second quarter to keep the Bulldogs within 19-11 at halftime. Grayslake Central got a 3-pointer from Madeline Mussay (8 points coming off the bench) late in the third quarter to push its lead to double digits for good.
"They're a good team defensively, and they're very patient offensively," Wauconda coach Jaime Dennis said of the Rams. "You make a mistake and they're going to capitalize. We knew we had to play a good game tonight, and we picked the wrong night to not execute very well and shoot poorly."