Bowen helps Grayslake North buck Central
This wasn't Lee Bowen's first rodeo.
He grew up on a steady dose of the Grayslake Central-Grayslake North basketball rivalry. He expected another intense game, and a raucous environment on Tuesday.
What he never would have expected when he was a kid was that he would help Grayslake North get a win over Grayslake Central.
Bowen is the son of Tim Bowen, who used to be the head coach at Grayslake Central for 12 years through 2007. Lee Bowen grew up thinking he'd play for his Dad and the Rams. He played feeder basketball for Grayslake Central.
But Tim Bowen left Grayslake Central for Carmel just as Lee got into high school. Lee Bowen then played for his Dad for three years at Carmel.
When Tim Bowen left Carmel last year, Lee Bowen wound up back in Grayslake, on the other side of the district, at Grayslake North.
In his last rivalry game, Lee Bowen gave host Grayslake North a huge spark en route to its 54-47 victory over Grayslake Central. Bowen, a reserve, scored 4 points, grabbed 9 rebounds and was a force defensively. He did much of his damage in the fourth quarter when the Knights were trying to break open a close game.
"This was awesome," Lee Bowen said. "It was always fun for me watching all my Dad's games at Central and playing there (in feeder) as a kid. But it was also fun beating Central, too."
The Knights, who improve to 15-9 overall and are still alive in the race for the FVC Fox Division title at 8-3, had some not-so-fun moments against Central.
They were up 31-23 at halftime but watched that lead quickly disappear over the opening minutes of the third quarter. Grayslake Central (12-11, 6-4 FVC Fox) opened with an 11-0 run to take a 34-31 lead with 4:20 left in the period.
Senior forward David Llorens was pivotal for the Rams during their big rally. He scored 8 of his 10 points in the third quarter.
"We came out with a lot more energy in the third quarter, just doing what we do with more intensity," Llorens said. "We laid off of them in the first half, and in the third quarter, we took it up a notch and that helped."
But Grayslake North scored the final 7 points of the quarter to take a 39-36 lead into the fourth quarter. The Knights' rally included a big dunk from Dom DiProva and a 3-pointer from Bobby Krebs.
Krebs finished with 13 points on 3 three-pointers, just behind Aidan Einloth, who scored a team-high 16 points.
"We wanted to go 8-0 at home this season and we knew that if we won this game, we still had a chance at conference, plus it's Grayslake Central. All of that made us work harder," Krebs said. "We fed off our crowd. Our start was really good. It gave us a lot of confidence to know that we could win this game, even when (Grayslake Central) got back into it."
Grayslake North finishes with an undefeated record at home for the first time in school history. If the Knights win their final division game and leader Prairie Ridge loses at least one of its final two division games, they would tie Prairie Ridge for the division title.
"Knowing that there was still a shot in conference, and knowing that we could be 8-0 at home, and knowing it was Central … there was so much going on here tonight and so much motivation for our guys," Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh said. "This was so big for us."
Grayslake Central, which got a game-high 21 points from Sam Ruhlmann, is now out of the Fox Division race. Had the Rams won, they also would have been in position to possibly tie Prairie Ridge for the title.
"We're out (of the race) now, but we still have three more games left before the (IHSA) playoffs to clean things up," Grayslake Central coach Kosta Kougias said. "Credit to North, they finished hard and it seemed like every time we looked up, someone was getting an offensive rebound for them or making a big play down the stretch. But you like the atmosphere of this game. It's always great."