A heart-pounding victory for Grayslake Central
The girl - "just a friend from school," David Llorens clarified - stood in the Grayslake Central student section holding a large sign and frequently flashing it high above her head.
"I (heart) David Llorens"
After the 6-foot-5 Llorens drove the lane and threw down a left-handed dunk to snap a tie late in the fourth quarter against visiting Grayslake North, the female fan wasn't the only Ram lovin' Llorens.
And when Llorens knocked down a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to secure Grayslake Central's 50-46 win over its District 127 rival, the home basketball team soaked up all the love from its fans, celebrating on the court.
"That was bigger to me than that dunk," Grayslake Central coach Kosta Kougias said of the free throws by Llorens, who had missed the front end of a 1-and-1 seconds earlier. "But it was a nice dunk. He does that in practice. We see it every day. We just want to see him do it in games more often."
Llorens finished with a team-high 13 points, while point guard Joey Mudd added 11. Grayslake Central (6-8, 2-2), which has won two games in a row for the first time since starting the season 3-0, trailed 36-29 midway through the third quarter. But Sam Ruhlmann (7 points) hit a 3-pointer over Grayslake North's zone, and the Rams closed the quarter with a 7-3 run to get within 39-36 entering the fourth.
"It was just patience, working the ball around," Llorens said. "They were in their zone, so Coach told us to be patient and not take stupid, quick shots."
"We've struggled against a 1-2-2 zone," Kougias said. "What we end up doing is we make one or two passes and it's a quick shot. David's right. We showed a lot of patience. We recognized that we don't necessarily have to take a shot because they're giving it to us."
Grayslake Central's bench then delivered to start the fourth.
Seth Graf sank a couple of jumpers to start the quarter, and after Grayslake North's Bobby Krebs (8 points) hit 2 free throws, DeJon Goodman drained a 3-pointer to put the Rams up 43-41 with 5:31 left. For Goodman, a sophomore guard, it was his first and only shot of the night.
"We're trying to build his confidence," Llorens said. "Hitting that shot was just huge for us."
Aidan Einloth, who led Grayslake North (8-7, 2-2) with 16 points and 9 rebounds, made a pair of free throws with 4:17 to go to knot the score at 46-46. Then with just less than two minutes left, Llorens energized the home crowd with his thunderous dunk.
"I just saw an opening and my eyes got huge," said Llorens, who dunked twice against Dundee-Crown last Friday. "I just went for it and luckily it went through."
After Llorens missed a free throw with 26 seconds left with Grayslake Central leading by two, Grayslake North had a chance at the other end. But with Michael Benko (6 points, 6 rebounds) in his face, Einloth missed a foul-line jumper. Llorens' clutch free throws came with 7.2 seconds on the clock.
Eli Atwater (11 points) also scored in double figures for Grayslake North.
"We were just sloppy with the ball in the second half," Knights coach Todd Grunloh said. "We never really had any type of rhythm in the half-court offense, for some reason."
Grayslake Central held Einloth, who was coming off an all-tournament performance at Washington's MLK tourney, to just 2 free throws after halftime.
"They were physical with him," Grunloh said. "That's the way you have to guard him. They're able to step up and take charges, so I don't know if that stops his penetration a step or two short. I think (Grayslake Central) really protected the basket, more than anything else."