Grayslake North hangs on to down Wauconda

Grayslake North's boys basketball team saw its recent 1,000 point scorer Ryan Connolly leave the court with a leg injury in the first quarter Friday night and not return until the start of the second half with tape surrounding his quad muscle. He only had a total of 5 points in the first half.

But Connolly came back limping around the court in the second half and scored 19 of his game-high 24 points, while Jamon Thomas added 14. Off the bench Austin Martineau contributed with 7 of his 11 points in the second quarter in the absence of Connolly as the Knights came back to win over Wauconda 65-60.

"I had gone up for a shot and someone put a knee into my quad area in the first quarter," Connolly said. "It tightened up in the second quarter. I did come back, but I didn't want to come out and I wanted to help my team win."

Actually, the Knights were outplayed by the Bulldogs for three quarters and trailed 50-35 entering the fourth. That's when Grayslake North outscored host Wauconda 30-10 to walk away with the Northern Lake County Conference win.

"I do feel pretty fortunate," Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said. "Wauconda, give them a lot of credit. They weren't fazed by the first performance. They came back and got us right at the start and got us on our heels. They were explosive with their guards. We kept begging our kids to make your defense your offense and we weren't pressuring the ball like the first time against them. I think our offense was struggling the first 20 minutes, that was affecting our defense and we kind of got down on ourselves.

"You get some turnovers and you get some momentum. Then the offense started clicking, then (Wauconda) goes on their heels. We finally got it and that was impressive."

The Knights beat the Bulldogs 79-58 in a meeting to start the season. But this victory has come in NLCC play, which puts Grayslake North at 6-2 and 2-0 while Wauconda falls to 3-4 and 0-2.

Wauconda led the entire game until the final minute. The Bulldogs held a 60-56 advantage when Tony Hines stepped up, dropping in back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Knights up 62-60 with 28.9 seconds left.

"Earlier in the game, I wasn't into it," Hines said. "I knew I had to do something to get this team a 'W.' I just cleared my head and let it go. I just wanted the ball back after hitting the first one. I knew I had to score."

Thomas added a free throw with 7.8 seconds remaining for a 63-60 lead. The Bulldogs had a chance to tie but their 3-point attempt went off the rim.

Then, Jason Donohue dropped in two free throws for the difference in the final seconds.

"You've got to give a hand to Grayslake North scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter," Wauconda coach Scott Luetchwager said. "It's monster points and you almost double your points in one quarter. It's very difficult and a tough loss to take right now. They picked up their pressure and our kids forgot where they were for a second.

"For a young team that we have, those first three quarters, we passed the ball well, moved it well and pushed the tempo. We were able to score in transition and in the half-court. We had some great ball movement, kept them off the boards an had some good defense. For three quarters, we played really well."

Donavan Carter led Wauconda with a team-high 19 points and Jake Shanhotzer added 11.