Miller, Grant up to the task
There’s a hard-fast rule about dunking on the Grant basketball team.
“If you can make the dunk, by all means, throw it down,” Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. “If not … ”
Well, let’s just say some bench time is in your future.
Forward Keion Miller knows the rule all too well, but that didn’t stop him from attempting two dunks in Wednesday’s Grant Holiday Tournament game against Round Lake.
He’s missed a dunk in the past. But this time, Miller never needed a sub as he threw down both dunks with authority in Grant’s 64-47 authoritative win over Round Lake.
“Coach always says that if you don’t make the dunk, he’ll take you right out, and he does. He did when I missed,” said Miller, who was one of four Grant players in double-figures with 14 points. “But I know I can do it. I dunk all the time in practice and I really wanted to get it in a game.”
Miller’s dunks were his first in a varsity game.
And they both came off of Round Lake turnovers early in the first half, which certainly set the tone the Grant defense was hoping for.
The Bulldogs, who improve to 6-7 on the season, pressured Round Lake into 22 turnovers for the game.
“We went back to what we usually do with our defense and it worked tonight,” Miller said. “So we kept doing it.”
Grant was up 12 points at halftime and extended that to as many as 17 points just two minutes into the fourth quarter.
“We’re just not taking care of the basketball,” Round Lake coach Jim Roberts said. “Turnovers have been a huge problem for us. We’re just not getting consistency of effort.”
Round Lake did get some consistent shooting from guard Karnell Wright, who hit four 3-pointers on his way to a team-high 15 points. His second of back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the third quarter cut Grant’s lead to 7 points (39-32). But Grant was able to push its lead back up to 10 points by the end of the quarter.
“Coach has been working with me on my shot and telling me that the more I stay in the gym, the more my shot will get better and that’s been happening,” Wright said. “Last year, I was like 1-for-20 on 3-pointers. Now, I’m like outrageous. Being in the gym has helped a lot.”
Wright was the only player to score in double-figures for Round Lake, while Grant also got double-figures out of Steve Dunning (game-high 17 points), Ryan Noda (14 points) and Tom Blanchette (10 points).
Noda also rolled up 10 rebounds and 6 assists.
“He had a really nice game,” Bosworth said of Noda. “He has so much potential.”
Grayslake North 47, Richmond-Burton 33: Grayslake North put together a strong third quarter to pull away from Richmond-Burton.
The Knights were up by 5 points at halftime and outscored Richmond-Burton by 8 points in the third quarter to take control.
Grayslake North guard AJ Fish poured in a game-high 18 points while teammate Danny Mateling added 11 points.
Sam Kaufman and Mike Kaska scored 13 and 10 points respectively for Richmond-Burton.