Grant toughens up against Wauconda
Toughness is a lot like height. It's hard to teach it.
But Grant girls basketball coach Matt Lukemeyer is doing all that he can think of to get his players a little tougher, a little more physical.
"We've been talking about playing physical the past couple of weeks," Lukemeyer said. "I've felt like defensively, especially the last couple of games, we were giving up too much.
"We do a lot of one-one-one, dead-ball stuff in practice where they're all over each other. I thought we did a better job of being physical tonight."
On Friday night, Grant got a tough, scrappy 51-47 win over host Wauconda in a game that required perhaps even an extra level of toughness and scrappiness.
The visiting Bulldogs, now 5-3 on the season (2-1 North Suburban Prairie), were without 6-foot-3 standout center Taylor Drake and had to find a way to compensate for her imposing presence inside. Drake was out sick.
"We just played really aggressive," said Grant junior guard Jasmine Sangster, who led the way with a game-high 20 points. "We have to make up for what we're missing (without Drake). Everyone had to be tougher and play their roles two and three times better."
Grant jumped out to a 13-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, setting the tone with a full-court press that forced 6 Wauconda turnovers. On the game, Wauconda (3-2, 1-2 Prairie) coughed the ball up 15 times.
"It was that first quarter, by far our weakest quarter," Wauconda coach Jaime Dennis said. "We had 6 points and we typically score 10 to 15 points a quarter. That really hurt us a lot. We weren't really organized and it cost us in a game like that.
"Down the stretch, though, we did make a great comeback."
Grant, which was up 20-19 at halftime, extended its lead to as many as 9 points in the third quarter. But Wauconda chipped away and a jumper by reserve forward Jackie Lung cut the deficit to 1 point (44-43) with just two minutes remaining in the game.
When Sangster hit a 3-pointer to bump Grant's lead back up to 4 points (47-43), Lung responded with another jumper. That cut Grant's lead to 47-45 with 58.4 seconds left.
Lung was a spark, scoring 8 of her 10 points in the fourth quarter.
"We all had it in us (to come back)," said Wauconda 6-foot-3 sophomore center Katie Rossetti, who finished with a team-high 15 points and 19 rebounds and had been looking forward to going up against Drake, an AAU teammate. "(Grant) is our rival and we all wanted to put it all out there and give everything we had.
"We put our hearts out there. Next time, I think we can get it."
Grant closed out the game over the final minute by knocking down 4 free throws, including two by junior forward Jordynn Hundley with 1.9 seconds left. Hundley finished with 8 points while teammate McKaylie Krey added 7 points and Andrea Weaver, who started for Drake, had 6 points.
Guards Corrina Vaughen and Maddie Gaschler each had 6 points for Wauconda.