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Numbers favor Einloth, unbeaten Grayslake North

A future actuary perhaps, Aidan Einloth, actually, is already working on numbers.

His own.

Three days after netting the 1,000th point of his high school basketball career, the Grayslake North senior followed up with a game-high 22 points in leading the Knights to an 86-60 romp over North Chicago's JV team at Johnsburg in the Johnsburg/Richmond-Burton tournament Friday.

Grayslake North (3-0) will play Crystal Lake South (3-0) for the tourney championship at 7 p.m. Saturday at Richmond-Burton.

"South is a tough opponent," said coach Todd Grunloh, whose Knights visited Crystal Lake South in the end-of-season Fox Valley Conference crossover last winter and lost by 14 points. "They're a great team. I know they have a 6-9 kid (Joshua Friesen) and a good outside shooter, as well. It'll be a great, early-season matchup. That's a team that a lot of people think have a good chance at winning the Valley side (of the FVC)."

Grayslake North should contend for the FVC Fox title again with Einloth leading the way. The 6-foot-5 senior forward is starting for the fourth year in a row, and as impressive as his numbers on the court have been, his accomplishment off the court are even better. He's been a straight-A student at Grayslake North and popped for a 34 on his ACT.

No wonder he's talked to MIT about playing basketball at the prestigious university in Cambridge, Mass.

"If I get in, I'll go there and play basketball," said Einloth, who, if not an actuary, might pursue a career in analytics for a sports team. "If I don't get in, I'll go to some other school for just academics."

Einloth ranks second on Grayslake North's all-time scoring list behind A.J. Fish, who totaled more than 1,200 points.

"(One-thousand points) is a nice milestone," Einloth said. "It's one of those things where coming into high school I never thought that I would probably get there. Twenty years from now, I'll be able to look back on it and say I scored 1,000 points in high school. It's a cool thing to have."

Friday's win for Grayslake North was cool too, even if it was against a North Chicago team that featured all sophomores, including Tyrek Cooper (15 points, three 3-pointers), Dyshawn Gales (11 points) and Kenny Richardson (10 points) along with freshman Raeshaun Samoa (8 points, 10 rebounds). The Knights were coming off a 1-point win over Johnsburg, which held Einloth to 3 points (a 3-pointer).

"There were usually four white jerseys everywhere he was at," Grunloh said. "They were in a zone and swarming him, and we continued to try to force it into him, rather than letting the offense take its time and get reversals."

Grayslake North was in control the entire way against North Chicago, putting together an 8-0 run after the Warhawks scored the opening basket and leading 27-16 after one quarter.

The Knights led 48-30 at halftime and 70-36 after three.

Jamal Thomas added 13 points for Grayslake North, while 6-2 junior Jack Van Reck came off the bench to score 10 points, including three 3-pointers. Bobby Krebs chipped in 9 points. Sophomore Jon Smithson (8 points), Tyler Elis (5 points, 4 rebounds) and Chris Kelly (7 points) also produced coming off the bench.

"We needed to clean up after the Johnsburg game," Grunloh said. "We looked really confused in the first half. (Friday), we just wanted an opportunity to play a little bit better. With all the things we did well on Monday (in a win over Lakes), it was a different type of approach (against Johnsburg), and we didn't handle it well."

The Knights had no complaints Friday.

"It was good just to get out and get another game before having a big game (Saturday night) with the championship," Einloth said. "We just knew that we had to execute better. We had some struggles in the half-court in the Johnsburg game. Today it was just good to get out there and have some fun."

Lakes 41, Johnsburg 34: Tied up with the host school 29-29 after three quarters, the Eagles limited the Skyhawks to 5 points the rest of the game.

"It's really our first true road game of the year against a good team," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "I thought our guys did a great job of being composed in that second half, and I thought defensively they were great. We limited (Johnsburg's) looks and did just enough at the offensive end."

Sophomore guard Michael Behrendt led Lakes (2-1) with a game-high 13 points. His 3-pointer 58 seconds into the fourth quarter snapped the 29-29 tie, and then with the Eagles leading 36-32 with 27 seconds left, he hit both ends of a 1-and-1.

"He was a little gun shy in the first half," Snyder said. "We told him, 'Shoot the ball. That's why you're here.' Once he got the confidence going, he hit some big shots for us. That's what we definitely see with Michael. He's got that ability to be a big-time scorer."

Colton Jewell, Jordan Mercure and Jack Christensen also hit buckets in the final quarter for Lakes, which plays at 5:30 p.m. Saturday against Richmond-Burton in the third-place game.

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