Johnsburg roars back to stun Grayslake Central

Johnsburg senior Danielle Slivka answered a question, then politely turned away and coughed several times into her bent arm. She did that every several seconds.

Her hacking was understandable considering she was diagnosed with bronchitis this week.

"I went to the doctor (Wednesday) and got medicine, but it makes me cough more when I run," Slivka said.

After Slivka's game-high 22 points led Johnsburg to a 60-53 win over visiting Grayslake Central in a Fox Valley Conference Fox Division girls basketball showdown Thursday night, it was the Skyhawks' opponent that felt worse.

Grayslake Central coughed up an 11-point second-half lead.

Add to that the reality that the Rams now almost surely won't win the division championship and it was no wonder that some players looked ill afterward. At least one player had tears in her eyes.

Johnsburg (19-6, 9-1), which has been battling both injury and sickness, took over sole possession of first place with two divisional games left. Grayslake Central (16-6, 9-2) has one game to go in the division.

"We got to learn from this," Rams coach Roger Lass said. "We're young, and (Johnsburg) is a team that went to the supersectional last year and returned everybody. We got a lot of sophomores and juniors playing. This was, really, our first real close game of the year. We needed an experience like this."

The Rams handled the pressure well for one half. Colleen Daly beat the first-quarter buzzer with a steal and 3-pointer, and Alex Scarbro capped the half with a 30-footer in the closing seconds to put the visitors up 36-27.

"I knew we needed a big play going into half," Scarbro said. "I love being the one to take a big shot."

Johnsburg did itself no favors in the first half by turning the ball over 18 times.

"We were out of control, playing crazy ball," Skyhawks coach Mike Toussaint said. "We turned the ball over too much, and we were going too fast. (Grayslake Central) was playing in-your-face, pressure defense and we played into that."

Grayslake Central led 40-29 when back-to-back 3-pointers by Megan Lopez (8 points) and Melissa Dixon (15 points) started a 10-0 run, which Slivka capped with consecutive layups to make it a one-point game.

Mary Kate Wright answered a 3 by Grayslake Central's Skyler Jessop (16 points) with a 3 of her own, but Jessop's 2 free throws had the Rams ahead 45-44 heading into the fourth, even though they got outscored 17-9 in the third.

Slivka's 2 free throws early in the fourth gave Johnsburg its first lead since late in the first quarter, and the Skyhawks never relinquished it.

Scarbro sank both ends of a one-and-one - her only points of the second half - to bring the Rams within 54-53 with 1:04 remaining, but the Skyhawks' Krista Volden drove baseline, scored and was fouled. Two free throws apiece by Dixon and Lopez down the stretch finished off the scoring.

Johnsburg committed only 5 turnovers after halftime.

"I think just slowing it down when we came on offense really helped," Slivka said.

Toussaint agreed with his coaching counterpart Lass that experience made a difference for his team.

"I think that's a big factor," Toussaint said. "You can tell (the players) only so much. I screamed at them at halftime. They had to do it. They knew what they had to do."

Scarbro led Grayslake Central with 17 points, but she was held to 2 in the second half by Johnsburg's Chandler Sommerfeldt.

"I thought Chandler Sommerfeldt played an awesome game," Toussaint said. "We challenged her at halftime to not let Scarbro score."

"Give the girl her props," Scarbro said.

"She played really good defense. Offensively, in the second half, I didn't go out with an attack-mode mentality. I wanted to distribute the ball more."

Rebekah Llorens added 10 points and 7 rebounds for Grayslake Central, which had its six-game winning streak snapped.

"We knew Johnsburg was going to give us a good punch in the mouth in the second half," Scarbro said. "I don't think we took it as seriously as we should have. They came out wanting it more than we did."

Lakes 49, North Chicago 47: The Eagles won for the first time ever on Senior Night, rallying from a four-point deficit in the final 31/2 minutes.

Mary Doupis scored 8 of her 11 points in the fourth quarter for Lakes (8-14, 3-7 North Suburban Prairie).

"It is great to see Mary playing well," Eagles coach Pete Schneider said of the junior. "She is a great kid and works hard in practice."

Jenna Schellinger led Lakes with 14 points, while Ashley Parmly added nine. Asja Triplett grabbed 10 rebounds. Chantayla Bloomfield had 6 boards.

"We struggled and did not play very well tonight," Schneider said. "I think the emotion of the night got to some of these seniors who just do not want the season to end."

CL Central 39, Grayslake North 25: Lauren Erickson had 13 points and 6 rebounds for the Knights, who fell to 10-14 overall and 4-7 in the Fox Valley Fox.