Grant clinches NLCC title outright
Over the last few weeks Torren Curry has been battling through a sprained knee and he has missed games for Grant.
He recently returned to the lineup and hasn't been completely healthy, but on Tuesday night Curry didn't show signs of a sore knee by leading the Bulldogs with a game-high 17 points, 7 assists and 3 steals while Henry Kusiak added 13 points.
Their efforts were enough to help Grant pull out a 50-41 road victory over Grayslake Central and win the Northern Lake County Conference title outright.
"It's getting better and better, day-by-day, I just take care of it the best that I can," Curry said. "It felt great to come out and shoot the ball. My teammates were the ones to give me the open looks. They have supreme confidence in my shots and they give me looks whenever I can get it. It was really good to come out and knock down shots."
Curry scored the first 13 points for the Bulldogs (16-11, 11-3), which helped Grant to a 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Mikal Ashley came off the bench for Grant in the second quarter, scoring 7 of his 9 points and grabbing 4 rebounds that helped give the Bulldogs a 26-21 lead at the break.
"It was huge because I knew the seniors wanted to win this game," said Ashley, a junior. "I just wanted to play hard for them and make sure they got the win. It meant a lot that they needed a spark off the bench and I wanted to fulfill that role for them."
In the second half, Grayslake Central (14-13, 8-5) cut the lead to 26-23 on Grant Hardy's short jump shot with 6:23 let in the third quarter.
But Curry added a different part of his game by tossing out a number of assists in leading the Bulldogs to a 12-1 run that closed out the third with a 38-24 lead.
"I love the assists more than the baskets," Curry said. "It's nice to see my teammates more involved and more engaged in games."
The Rams did make a push and try to cut into the lead in the final quarter. Antonio Crews scored 7 of his team-high 14 points and Ethan Boelens (12 points) hit a couple of 3-pointers including one to make the score 43-38 with 1:38 left.
But the Bulldogs' MJ Smith make two consecutive free throws extending the margin to 45-38 and Grant never looked back from there.
"(Grant) wanted to use their physicality and play some tough defense," said Grayslake Central coach Kosta Kougias, whose team had won six straight coming in. "They wanted to disrupt our offense and they did that. We tried to get some shots to fall and they didn't. That's a credit to Grant. We knew coming in that not a single play would be easy or a single pass would be easy. We talked about fighting for a spot on the floor. I thought we did but that defense tightened up on us."
Grant has now won the NLCC for the second time in the last three years but it didn't come easy.
"Grayslake was playing real well coming in," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "They're a good team and they have good players. It was a good win and the way they come out with energy and fire from the get-go ... these guys are more than capable to do that. We had a rough stretch, some guys under the weather, sick and banged up. It was the first game in a couple of weeks to be able to get back to where we won seven in a row and now we can get back to that level."