Girls basketball: Drevline, Grayslake Central hustle past Antioch for regional crown

Grayslake Central junior guard Mosey Drevline scored 1 point in a girls basketball playoff game Thursday night.

One.

Rough night, eh?

Nope, not even close.

The feisty, aggressive, 5-foot-6 Ram excelled in pretty much every other phase of the game, especially on defense, as host Grayslake Central defeated Antioch 56-36 in a Class 3A regional final.

“I don't care how many points Mosey scores in a game,” Rams coach Steve Ikenn said after guiding Grayslake Central (26-5) to the program's third regional championship in six seasons. “She does so many other things well for us, like handling the ball, running our offense, getting steals and assists, disrupting passes.

He could have gone on and on and on about the little things that make huge differences in hoops games.

“Tough,” he added. “Mosey is tough.”

And selfless.

“Just trying to make an impact without scoring,” said a shrugging and smiling Drevline, who netted her lone point at 1:05 of the third quarter, upping the Rams' lead to 39-29 against dauntless Antioch (14-13), which had lost twice to Grayslake Central in the regular season.

“What I'll remember most about this game was how hard we played, how all of us hit the floor hard for loose balls. Bruises and floor burns should count for something, right? Floor burns are louder and they hurt more.”

What soothed the home crowd midway through the third quarter: Drevline secured a steal under the Rams' basket and quickly fired the assist on easy layup at the other end of the floor.

Sophomore Peyton Hoffman, senior Madison Hoffman and junior Annie Wolff took care of matters offensively for the victors, scoring 20, 12 and 12, respectively.

Madison Hoffman grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds for the top-seeded and reigning Northern Lake County Conference champion Rams, who will face the winner of Friday night's Saint Viator regional final between the host school and Vernon Hills in a North Chicago sectional semifinal at 6 p.m. Tuesday.

Eighth-seeded Antioch stood tall against the taller Rams --- ranked 12th in the Daily Herald's Top 20 --- for nearly three quarters Thursday night, trailing 28-20 at the break and only 34-29 at the 2:40 mark of the third quarter. The Sequoits' leading scorer, junior guard-forward Heidi Rathmann had committed her fourth foul 22 seconds before sophomore guard-forward Scarlett Carroll narrowed the lead to 5 on a bucket.

“Heidi Rathmann is a force on a tough team that didn't back down,” Ikenn said. “It seemed every time we enjoyed a fairly big lead, Antioch would claw back.”

Sequoits coach Jamie D'Andrea had urged her club to embrace its underdog status and shoot to reduce the sectional seeds to meaningless numbers.

“I'm proud of my girls, proud of the way they competed,” D'Andrea said. “A lot of people thought Grayslake Central would win easily tonight.

“We hung in there for quite a while.”

Grayslake Central , now winner of 10 straight games, outscored Antioch 15-5 in the final eight minutes, getting 6 points from Wolff. Peyton Hoffman and Madison Hoffman had opened the scoring in the quarter with back-back buckets spanning 40 seconds.

That puffed the advantage to 45-31, prompting an Antioch timeout.

Ikenn also lauded the effort turned in by Rams senior forward Katelyn Marcelain.

“Unsung --- that's what she is,” he said. “I'll take what she gave us tonight.

“I'll take those numbers and the way she battled, especially in a playoff game.”