Boys basketball: Strong start sends Grayslake Central past Grayslake North
Visiting Grayslake North saved its best for the fourth quarter Wednesday night when they faced crosstown rival Grayslake Central in a Northern Lake County Conference boys basketball showdown.
But despite outscoring the Rams 14-8 in the final quarter, the Knights’ rally was too late as Grayslake Central captured a 46-35 NLCC victory to remain in second place behind Wauconda (17-5, 8-0) in the conference.
Grayslake North (9-13, 2-6) was totally shut down by the Rams defense as Grayslake Central built a 15-8 lead after one quarter before outscoring the Knights 11-4 in the second quarter to take a 26-12 lead into halftime.
Senior Alex Granville (game-high 16 points) hit his third 3-pointer of the contest to open the second half to give the Rams their biggest lead of the contest at 29-12 as that trey capped a 14-2 run.
Grayslake North's cold shooting warmed up with a 7-point run. But a driving basket by Central's Carson Woods (12 points) with three seconds left in the third quarter boosted the lead back to 38-21.
"I was really happy with the defensive effort. They have a couple of really talented scorers, and I thought for the most part we did a great job of containing them," said Grayslake Central coach Brian Centella, whose team beat Grayslake North 48-30 on Dec. 5.
"He (Granville) is such a good player, he gives all of the stuff that he gives us offensively, but he picks up full court the entire time which is impressive, and he really bothers the ball defensively."
Trailing 44-25 with 3:44 to play, the Knights went on an 8-point run as sophomore Will Foley scored 6 straight points to cut the gap to 44-33 with 2:07 remaining. But that was as close as North would get as two free throws by Woods with 1:14 to go helped seal the victory.
"The game plan is always defense, and our game plan was to stop Uros (Mitrovic) and to just play 5 as 1 like all connected instead of playing 1 on 1," said Granville. "We're really just starting to play unselfishly and play together, and I think we can go to sectionals."
Sophomore Jared Van Donselaar scored a team-high 14 points for the Knights while Foley and teammate Rees Jorden scored 8 points each. Mitrovic scored 4 points before fouling out on a questionable call with 3:44 to play. Cole Halverson scored 6 points for the Rams while teammates Owen Perz and Andy Monzanga scored 5 and 4 points, respectively.
"I was really proud of the way we finished. The guys didn't quit and this team has character and stayed together," said Grayslake North coach Josh Feinzimer.
"I think we're more proud of that than anything. Early on we just struggled to score, some shots didn't fall and we dug ourselves a hole that we just couldn't climb out of. But I give a lot of credit to them because they're a really good defensive team, and they made things hard on us. Especially for Uros (Mitrovic) to take him away tonight."