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Grayslake North keeps the focus on winning

To honor junior guard Kyle Knoeppel's father, who's winning his fight against cancer, Crystal Lake Central's basketball team wore blue T-shirts reading "Refuse To Lose" during pregame warm-ups against visiting Grayslake North on Thursday night.

Tigers coach Rich Czeslawski even wore one under his sport coat.

The motto could easily be Grayslake North's this season too.

The Knights still haven't lost this season after beating Crystal Lake Central 77-37 in a Fox Valley Conference Fox Division game. It was their second win in as many nights after going 22 days between games. For the third year in a row, Grayslake North did not participate in a Christmas tournament.

"It was a great time with family, that's for sure, and I'm assuming the kids would say the same thing," coach Todd Grunloh said of the extended break after his Knights improved to 11-0 and 4-0 in the FVC Fox. "They got eight full days off, and we still had 8 or 9 practices too."

Playing a 2-win Crystal Lake Central squad, Grayslake North bolted to an 18-0 lead after one quarter, getting 9 layups in 11 shot attempts. Aidan Einloth's layup was nearly a dunk, as he just couldn't muster up enough elevation after a steal and dish by Joe Geary.

"Back-to-back (games), tough to get the legs moving. Sitting at school all day," Einloth said with a sheepish smile.

Grayslake North was up 24-0 when Crystal Lake Central finally got on the board thanks to 2 free throws by Adam Pump with 4:24 left before halftime. The Tigers sank their first field goal when Quintin Ellman scored on a putback with 1:52 left.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Joey McHugh had Grayslake North up 37-6 at halftime. Everyone on Grunloh's bench played lots of minutes, with eight reserves accounting for 38 points. Jack Van Reck scored 14 points (four 3-pointers) coming off the bench.

The MIT-bound Einloth had a game-high 16 points, while point guard Jamal Thomas added 13.

"Even the kids who were coming in the game late, I thought they played really hard and took everything seriously," Grunloh said.

Like Knoeppel's father, whose cancer is in remission, Crystal Lake Central kept fighting. The Tigers were outscored just 22-15 in the third quarter and 18-16 in the fourth. Pump, freshman center Alex Timmerman and Adam Wittenberg each had 7 points.

In its first two games of 2016, Grayslake North has won by a combined 72 points over Woodstock North and Crystal Lake Central.

"I wasn't surprised that we would come back (after the break) and play hard," Einloth said. "The main thing was just respecting our opponents. Seeing that they're two conference games, they mean a lot. Both games we came out and had strong starts."

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