Grayslake Central streak hits 14
Stevenson's fire alarm sounded and blinked repeatedly throughout the high school late in the first half of Saturday's hot basketball attraction.
The false alarm repeated in the third quarter.
But not even a visit by the local fire department and a pair of building evacuations — necessitated because of a broken water pipe in a classroom — could disturb Grayslake Central's girls.
The Rams remained burning hot, stretching their winning streak to 14 games with a 51-44 nonconference win over a Patriots team that had cooled off previously undefeated Wauconda on Friday.
Grayslake Central improved to 16-2 with what might have been its most impressive win in years, while Stevenson fell to 14-6.
“It's huge,” said four-year varsity guard Alex Scarbro, who scored all of her 16 points, including two 3-pointers, in the first three quarters. “We haven't had a big win like this in a long time. Our team is finally working together and we're getting big wins this season. It's nice. It's a change.”
It was a change of another kind for first-year Grayslake Central coach Steve Ikenn. Before coming to Grayslake Central, he taught math and coached at Stevenson for 12 years. For 11 years before that, he coached the eighth-grade girls basketball team at Twin Groves Middle School down the street from Stevenson.
“It's funny, because Coach was trying to downplay how big a deal it was to play the school he had come from,” said Rams center Rebekah Llorens, who posted game bests of 20 points and 8 rebounds. “At the end, we said, ‘Coach, we know it was a pretty big deal for you.' He was just chuckling to himself. We were like, ‘Got you, Coach.' ”
Ikenn was just thrilled for what the victory meant for his program.
“(Stevenson) is a top-ranked school and a Class 4A team, and whenever you play competition like that, it's a big game,” said Ikenn, whose Rams are in Class 3A. “It shows us that we can play with anybody.”
Scarbro set the tone with a 3-pointer to open the scoring, and the Rams were never off their game. The senior's spinning layup snapped a 17-17 tie with 2:12 left before halftime, 10 seconds before the first fire-alarm interruption.
“Steve had them fired up, and they played with a lot of emotion,” said Stevenson coach Tom Dineen, who had Ikenn on his staff last season. “We played like we were getting ready to host a funeral.”
The 35-minute stoppage in play couldn't cool off Scarbro. She converted a steal into a bucket and then buried a 3-pointer to help give Grayslake Central a 24-21 lead at halftime.
The Rams' advantage swelled to 30-21 before Anna Morrissey (12 points) finally scored Stevenson's first points of the second half with 4:28 left in the third.
Shortly afterward, the fire alarm went off again.
“That didn't affect us,” Dineen said of the stoppages, the second of which lasted 20 minutes. “Trust me.”
“Both teams had to deal with it so we can't use that as an excuse,” Stevenson guard Michelle O'Brien said. “We had to play through it. In the first half, we weren't intense. We didn't have emotion. We just didn't play our game.”
O'Brien led the Patriots with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. But the Western Michigan recruit missed her first 10 shots. She was coming off back-to-back games in which she sank five 3s.
Skyler Jessop (9 points), whose 7-of-10 free throws in the fourth helped seal Stevenson's fate, guarded O'Brien.
“She's a good defender, but I definitely think I wasn't in my rhythm,” said O'Brien, who scored 11 points (two 3s), in the fourth, after the hosts trailed 38-27 after three.
“She's a really good player who can drive and shoot,” Jessop said of O'Brien. “I was just trying to do what I could.”
And, yes, the Rams were trying to win one for their coach.
“It was real strange,” Ikenn said. “I had 12 really wonderful years here and a lot of friends still here. I was walking in and getting hugs from the opposition. I coached with Tom last year and Tom was great to me, and he's a great coach. Whenever you beat a program with this type of talent and that type of coach, it's nice.”
Not even a couple of false fire alarms could douse the Rams' excitement.
Said Scarbro: “It was worth staying for.”