Grayslake Central starts defense of tourney title with a victory vs. Bartlett
Xavi Granville wasted no time displaying his enthusiasm for the opportunity to begin Grayslake Central's defense of its Hinkle Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament championship..
Granville, a 6-foot-4 junior, scored 14 of his team-high 19 points in the opening 8:13 to drive the fifth-seeded Rams (8-3) to a 59-45 victory Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the 16-team event hosted by Jacobs in Algonquin.
"I feel like an environment like this, where it's a competitive high-stakes tournament, basketball is the most fun to play," Granville said after he also had 7 rebounds and 2 assists. "I was excited to play."
It showed as the Rams also got 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting from 6-4 senior Jadon Dumas and a wide range of other contributions for their eighth win in their last nine games. They moved into Tuesday's 6 p.m. quarterfinal against Cary-Grove (6-7), which upset No. 4 seed Hoffman Estates 53-37 on 16 points from Jake Hornok and 10 assists by P.J. Weaver.
Granville started and finished his early outburst with a pair of 3-pointers for an 18-7 lead. He also scored on a turnaround jumper, a runner in the lane, a drive and 2 free throws and fed Dumas for layup.
"He had a great first half and really carried them," said Bartlett coach JIm Wolfsmith of Granville hitting 5 of his first 6 shots and finishing 6-for-13 from the field.
"He's such a gifted scorer and so hard to keep in front of," Grayslake Central coach Brian Centella said of his 18-point averager. "He's a really good shooter as well. Once he gets going he's flat-out hard to stop.
"We found a rhythm in the first half and Xavi took the lid off the rim for us and they all followed suit."
A buzzer-beating 3 by Jayden Hall (8 points, 4 assists) put the Rams up 39-18 at halftime on 67 percent shooting from the field (14-for-21) and 5-for-8 on 3s. Junior Eric Brum added 7 points and 4 assists and Aayan Siddiqui provided a big lift off the bench with 6 points and 6 rebounds as Bartlett (4-9) never got closer than the final margin.
Granville was also instrumental in containing Bartlett senior all-tournament returnee Nathan Scearce to 5 of his game-high 21 points in the first half. Scearce hit 6 of his last 10 shots to finish 8-for-20 from the field.
"People talk about offense and having to play together but the same holds true defensively," Centella said of the Rams' tough man-to-man. "Defense is about trust."
Bartlett showed some encouraging signs in the second half as it picked up its shooting to 10-for-23 and Colin and Keegan Taylor both drew charging fouls. Next up is Hoffman Estates (7-5) in a noon consolation bracket game Tuesday.
"I'll take what I saw in the second half going to Christmas break," Wolfsmith said. "Hopefully we come back and play the same kind of basketball."
Which Grayslake Central is doing even though it lost all its starters from last year's 29-win sectional champion. The unselfish Dumas helped pick up the slack for injured 6-6 junior Christian Jaimes, who is expected back after Christmas. The next challenge is repeating its 47-29 victory over Cary on Thursday night.
"Even though it's a different team our reputation is still the same," Granville said. "We want to prove to everyone else that even though we're a different team we still stand for the same thing."