advertisement

Tempo turns the tide in Prairie Ridge's favor

Up-tempo basketball sounds like a good idea to most players.

"Until they find out how much work it is," Prairie Ridge boys basketball coach Corky Card said with a laugh.

Prairie Ridge plays up-tempo defense, pressing and trapping all over the court, all game long. It's not for slackers.

The Wolves average about 20 forced turnovers per game.

"You have to buy into it and buy into each other," Prairie Ridge senior guard Payton Otto said. "You've got to know that if we do this, we have to give 100 percent effort every time for it to work.

"The whole thing is being relentless. It's just different than what everyone else does. You always have guys flying at you. Normally, you just have one guy pressuring the ball in a full-court press. With us, we have a guy on the ball and if you beat him, then you've got to face another guy and if you beat him, you've got another guy coming at you."

Wave after wave of Prairie Ridge's full-court pressure and half-court traps kept coming at Grayslake Central on Friday night. And the host Rams didn't respond well.

Prairie Ridge forced Grayslake Central into a season-high 27 turnovers, including 17 in the first half, en route to a 66-58 victory that was not nearly as close as the final score indicates.

In the first half, as Prairie Ridge, which moves to 17-3 overall and 8-0 in the Fox Valley Conference, built up a 12-point, second-quarter lead, Grayslake Central had more turnovers than shot attempts (13).

"You're not going to beat anyone with that many turnovers," said Grayslake Central coach Kosta Kougias, whose team drops to 11-9 overall and 4-5 in the FVC. "We just struggled with that press. We talked about it all week, we just didn't execute.

"You know going into it that that's how Prairie Ridge feasts on you. They want to cause turnovers. They want to be in your face and they do a great job of it. You've just got to stay composed and be able to find the open guy. But they've got active hands and they're all up on you. They did a nice job on defense and then you're playing catch-up the rest of the way."

Grayslake Central was down 11 points (29-18) at halftime and saw Prairie Ridge extend its advantage to as many as 17 points in the third quarter.

The Rams did settle down in the fourth quarter, and turned the ball over only three times. Meanwhile, they out-scored Prairie Ridge 27-19 in the period, keyed by a flurry from senior reserve Grant Hupp. Hupp scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter.

However, the hole was just too deep for Grayslake Central.

"I came in confident and had a good stroke tonight," said Hupp, who scored a season-high 12 points against Prairie Ridge earlier in the season. "We just had a lot of trouble with their press and getting the ball over half-court.

"They have a high-pressure defense and that really did it for us. It just gets in your face, they trap a lot and that throws people off."

Sam Ruhlmann paced Grayslake Central with 17 points, including an 8-of-11 effort from the free throw line in the second half. Like Hupp, he also scored 10 points in the fourth quarter. David Kienzle added 12 points for the Rams.

Otto was the only double-figure scorer for Prairie Ridge, which kept Grayslake Central at arm's length by hitting 13-of-17 free throws in the fourth quarter. The balanced Wolves got at least 5 points from eight players and scoring from a total of nine players.

"We don't have the biggest kids or the fastest kids, but our style with the press fits our kids. They can be quick (in short bursts)," Card said. "We get pressure on the ball and play hard.

"We play a lot of kids and we get a lot of kids points off the press. If we can't turn you over, we're really going to struggle. The more pressure we have on people, the better it is for us."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.