Close call, but Grayslake North falls

As Woodstock's gym emptied to the sounds of happy home fans and blaring music, Grayslake North's boys basketball players sat quietly on their bench and changed into their sweats.

There was ample room for a team that, apparently, didn't need its locker room.

"I thought they would have gone in, but I guess they're used to changing out here," Knights coach Todd Grunloh said. "Maybe they wanted to put on a show for everyone."

The better show by the visitors came in the fourth quarter. Grayslake North erased a nine-point deficit with 5½ minutes left, only to fall 55-54 in a Fox Valley Fox Division opener Friday night.

"We played a little smarter in the fourth quarter," Grunloh said. "We made shots around the basket. The first half we missed a lot of shots around the basket."

Woodstock opponents won't usually score inside easily, not with 6-foot-8 junior Nick Kubiak and 6-5 senior Mason Sutter protecting the interior. Kubiak had 3 blocks.

"Any time you have a kid the size of Kubiak you're thinking, 'Could he block my shot?' " Grunloh said. "But that's something we preach nonstop. We couldn't care less if a kid has 20 blocks. We're still going to attack him."

Aidan Einloth led Grayslake North (4-3) with a game-high 19 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, 8 rebounds and 3 steals. Bobby Krebs (three 3s) and Dom DiProva (two 3s) added 11 points each for the Knights, while Lucas Buckels chipped in nine. Krebs swished a half-court shot at the final buzzer, after Vannis Smith made 2 free throws with 2.9 seconds left to all but seal the win for Woodstock (5-2).

"In the fourth quarter, we got a little energy burst," Einloth said. "We had Connor (Sinclair) come off the bench and he really pumped us up and got us going defensively. And we just started pushing the ball in transition."

Woodstock sank a season-high nine 3-pointers - by six players, including Kubiak - and had six in the opening half to take a 30-21 lead into the break. But when the Blue Streaks needed points down the stretch, they got them from their big guys. Kubiak's putback and Sutter's pair of power moves inside capped a 6-3 run after DiProva's three-point play tied the score at 47-47 with 2:31 left.

"Sutter's a big kid and we don't have maybe a person strong enough to guard him, pound for pound," said Einloth, who's easily the Knights' tallest player at 6-5. "We were a little overplaying (down the stretch). They were really making the 3s, and that's what affected us in the first half."

Daniel Shook's two 3s in 30 seconds had hiked Woodstock's lead to 47-38 with 5:30 left in the fourth. But Sinclair's basket started a 9-0 run.

Sutter, a three-year varsity player who's expected to play football in college, was Woodstock's only scorer in double digits with 17 points. Kubiak and Smith each had eight.

"Sutter isn't the greatest basketball player, but he is tough and very intelligent," Grunloh said. "He knows, 'These are my strengths. I'm going to hang around the basket and get muscle points.' He just destroyed our zone, which has been working really well of late."

Woodstock was coming off a two-point win over Jacobs and a five-point victory over Wauconda.

"The conference is really going to be competitive," Blue Streaks coach Alex Baker said. "I think people are just going to beat each other up all season. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night. So the fact that we're playing so many close games early on hopefully puts us at an advantage when that happens."