Johnsburg's heady play too much for Grant

Usually, the Johnsburg girls basketball team is in good shape when at least a third of its three-headed monster is playing scary good.

On Monday, Grant had to be downright spooked.

The Skyhawks got extra big games out of two of their three big guns and the third was right on the verge.

Guard Aannah Interrante scored a game-high 24 points on 5 three-pointers while teammate and 6-foot center Jazza Johns had 18 points to lead visiting Johnsburg to a 58-46 nonconference victory over Grant. Forward Trace Chase, the third head to the monster, finished with 9 points.

"No one is going to complain about having that kind of balance," Johnsburg coach Brad Frey said with a laugh. "Aannah, Jazza and Trace all take turns having big games. Aannah's had some 20-point games. Jazza's had some 20-20 games and Trace had a 26-15 game. It's been nice because teams can't key on one person. We haven't had that in a while."

While the Big Three were lighting up the offensive end, defense also became a storyline for Johnsburg.

The Skyhawks came hard right from the tip with defensive intensity that forced Grant into 9 first-quarter turnovers. The Bulldogs didn't score their first field goal until there were just two minutes left in the period.

"Our start was not too good. We talked about all of our turnovers at halftime," said Grant guard Jasmine Sangster, who scored a team-high 17 points. "We have to come out stronger. We have to take each possession more slowly and really run it through and poise ourselves so we don't make as many turnovers."

Grant, which had 23 turnovers on the game, also got 11 points (on 3 three-pointers) out of Jenna Pecorini. One of her three-pointers tied the game at 18-18 with 3:26 left in the second quarter.

But Johnsburg finished the period on a 10-0 run to take a 28-18 lead into halftime.

Behind 11 points from Interrante, Johnsburg exploded in the third quarter and extended its lead to 20 points, 50-30.

"We just kept going hard and going after the ball and getting good opportunities at the basket," Interrante said. "We played together as a team well. I think they (Grant) may have gotten frustrated because we kept at it."

Thanks to 6 points from Sangster, Grant out-scored Johnsburg 16-8 in the final period, but just had too much of a deficit to cut.

Johnsburg improves to 12-8 overall while Grant drops to 6-10.

"We were trying to switch off between zone and man and it just seemed like nothing was working with (Johnsburg's Big Three)," Grant coach Matt Lukemeyer said. "They've got the two big girls (Johns and Chase) inside and shooters like (Interrante) who can really knock it down. We tried face-guarding (Interrante). We did a lot of things, we were also pressing. But we just couldn't get anything to work against them."