Sluggish at first, Grayslake North returns to form

Slow starts have been the norm for Grayslake North's girls basketball team at Mundelein's Thanksgiving tournament.

So have wins.

Playing for the third time in as many nights, the Knights came through with their third straight victory, 43-31 over Carmel Catholic on Wednesday night.

Sophomore guard Brandi Thibeaux led Grayslake North (3-0) with 16 points, 5 steals and 4 rebounds, while Abbey Stinner and Abby Fish each added 10 points apiece.

"It's a tough tournament to play in, and we challenged the girls again to get off to a quick start," said coach Rob Nicoletti, whose Knights play Highland Park at 4:30 p.m. Friday. "I think a lot of it has to do with the way that Carmel plays. They play very hard, and they do a good job. We had to respond, and luckily we did."

Grayslake North held a 15-12 lead at the break and didn't break away from Carmel (1-2) until the middle of the third quarter.

"We just needed to change our energy and our body language on the floor," Nicoletti said. "We were getting caught in Carmel's game. We were getting away from what we were doing the first two nights that was helping us to be successful. I thought the girls responded well."

The big response came from Fish, who came off the bench to sink a couple of layups to stretch the Knights' lead to 23-16 with a couple of minutes left in the third.

"I come in off the bench and try to do my best and do whatever I can for the team," Fish said. "I just tried driving and was able to get a couple of baskets."

The Knights kept up their intensity into the final quarter. Thibeaux scored 14 points, including three 3-pointers, during an 18-8 run. Grayslake North led 41-24 with three minutes left and never looked back.

"The coach gave me a wake-up call going into the quarter," Thibeaux said. "I really wasn't on in the first half and in the third quarter. I really wasn't focused on what I had to do. (In the fourth), I was trying to work with the team."

Dani DeLozier led Carmel with 14 points and 5 rebounds, while Daija Pruitt added 9 points and 12 boards.

The Corsairs led 8-6 after the first quarter and trailed just 15-2 at halftime.

"We executed our game plan in the first half," Carmel coach Kelly Perz said. "We did slow down (Grayslake North) quite a bit. But we missed a number of easy layups and had so many turnovers. You can't do that against good teams and expect to win. Second half, I think we got physically and mentally tired. It looked like they were running in mud. We couldn't get that energy or spark going."