Grayslake C. gets "crazy" win over Mundelein

Grayslake Central 82, Mundelein 64

Grayslake Central's Kevin O'Rourke will vividly remember the first varsity dunk of his senior season.

So will his teammates and coaches.

O'Rourke's one-handed fast-break dunk in the first half Monday was the exclamation point on the Rams' 82-64 season-opening victory at Mundelein in the first round of the Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament.

"I've never dunked like that before, even in practice," said O'Rourke, a 6-foot-3 guard/forward who scored a game-high 24 points. "It was crazy."

Crazy is a good way to describe Grayslake Central's tumultuous offseason. Late in the summer, the Grayslake school board did not renew coach Tim Bowen's contract for this season. Brian Moe, Bowen's assistant, was promoted.

"We went through a lot in the last year and it was really emotional tonight," O'Rourke said.

Adding to the emotion was that four years ago, Moe was the freshman coach at Mundelein.

"It was nice to come back and win, but it was gut-wrenching to coach against those guys," Moe said.

In the first quarter, both teams burned up the nets as if it were March instead of November. Grayslake Central and Mundelein traded baskets at a frenetic pace, and the Rams led 28-27 after eight minutes.

The Rams tightened up their defense in the second quarter while Mundelein's defense was porous. In the second half, especially, Grayslake Central seemed to get a good shot whenever it wanted. The Rams shot 52 percent from the field.

"Grayslake Central is one of the better teams we will play this year, but we made it too easy for them," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "We were out of position defen sively. I was disappointed that we didn't (seem) to want to compete down the stretch."

Grayslake Central opened a 7-point lead at halftime and extended that margin to double digits in the third quarter.

Grayslake Central knocked down 11 3-pointers. Senior guard Michael Brumm, who battled foul trouble all game, and senior Aaron Snyder, each hit three 3-pointers.

Mundelein was forced to call a timeout in the third quarter after a 3-pointer by Snyder gave Grayslake Central a 61-47 lead. During that run, Moe was worried that the Rams were playing too fast on offense, but they kept making shots.

"You're trying to kill me, but I like it," were the first words Moe directed to his players at the timeout.

"I decided I might as well stop fighting," Moe said with a smile after the game. "I wanted us to slow it down but we kept making jump shots and layups."

O'Rourke, junior Andrew Sipes (17 points) and Brumm (11 points) were Grayslake Central's double-figure scorers.

Mundelein was led by junior guard Ben Brust (20 points). Ryan Sawvell, a 6-foot-7 sophomore, contributed 18 points. Senior guard Kevin Barber (14 points) made 3 of his four 3-pointers in the first quarter.

This will be Sawvell's first full season on the varsity.

"He's a good athlete with a very high ceiling," Knar said.

As for Grayslake Central, the Rams were excited that the focus is back on basketball. After winning 22 games last year, they couldn't wait to get this season going.

"We've been waiting for this year since sixth grade," O'Rourke said.