Sipes, Grayslake Central celebrate good times
The 2008-09 boys basketball season was taken away from current Grayslake Central senior Andrew Sipes.
An injury to his right knee signaled the end of his junior year which may have been somewhat of a blessing for Sipes.
"I have learned never to take anything for granted and to enjoy what you have because you never know when it's going to be taken away from you," Sipes said.
The fact that Sipes looks like he is having fun all the time hasn't been lost on his teammates, and it was more than apparent Friday night in the Rams' Fox Valley Conference road contest at Crystal Lake Central.
As the teams broke the huddle to start the fourth quarter, the 1970's hit "YMCA" was blaring over the speakers, which prompted the always affable Sipes to break into song.
"You have to have fun out there," Sipes said afterwards. "It's a fun game and I like having a good time out there."
Sipes and his teammates had a great time at the Tigers' expense. Led by a game-best 20 points from Josh Rappaport and 14 from Sipes, the Rams cruised to a 79-45 win to remain unbeaten in the Fox Valley Conference Fox Division at 7-0 while improving to 13-6 overall.
The Rams wasted little time putting this one out of reach, racing to a 20-6 cushion after one quarter. The Tigers (6-14, 3-4) got as close as 26-15 before a personal 7-point run from Rappaport gave the Rams a 33-15 edge with 2:48 to play in the half.
"Our coaches have stressed about trying to start with a lot of intensity and we came out and did that tonight," Sipes said. "We want to come out each time and get the opponent into a hole and we did a good job of that tonight."
The Rams closed the first half with a bang when Jordan Taylor (8 points) beat the buzzer with a long 3-pointer to put Grayslake up 40-22 at the break.
"Jordan handles running the offense well and he can score some too," said Rams coach Brian Moe. "It would be hard for some guys to take a back seat with two seniors scoring a lot, but Jordan has done a great job there for us."
In between dance steps and mouthing the words to the Village People classic, Sipes and the Rams put the Tigers out for good to start the second half. Rappaport hit his second 3-pointer of the night, and Mick Daly (7 points) scored on back-to-back possessions to run the margin to 52-29.
Sipes put the icing on the cake with a running layup and a putback off a nice feed from Steve Brocious.
Jon Jacobs led the Tigers with 13 points, and Mike Fior and Joe Pijanowski each added 10 points.