Larson, Grayslake Central able to drive past Lakes
Amanda Larson, Grayslake Central's go-to scorer, wasn't lighting up Lakes' new scoreboard.
She then flashed. She darted through the lane, basketball in hand and banked in a tough shot. There went that scoreboard that shows individual point totals. It flashed brightly, "3 13," "3 13," "3 13."
Larson (No. 3) sank a driving layup, giving her 13 points (game high) and, ultimately, a Grayslake Central victory. Sophomore point guard Maura Fitzgerald finished off the 35-32 win with a pair of free throws, sinking Lakes' upset bid.
"They were ready for us," Rams coach Steve Ikenn said of the Eagles.
Larson stayed focused, despite struggling with her outside shot. Her basket put the Rams up 33-32 with 27 seconds left. An all-area selection last season, she had made only 5 of her previous 18 shots.
"I looked at my coaches and they said, 'Drive,' " Larson said. "There was 20-something seconds left, and I just went."
The victory extended Grayslake Central's winning streak to six games, the Rams' longest since they won seven straight from Jan. 26-Feb. 7, 2012. Their 26-6 campaign that season also included an 11-game winning streak.
While Grayslake Central improved to 6-3 and 4-0 in the Northern Lake County Conference, Lakes fell to 2-7 and 1-3.
"You got to give Lakes credit," Ikenn said. "They played really good defense. They made it tough for us to run our offense. Defensively, I thought we did great all game. I thought we pressured them and took them out of their offense."
After Grayslake Central knocked off three-time North Suburban Prairie Division champ Antioch on Tuesday, it would have been understandable if the Rams were overconfident against a 2-win opponent. But Larson assured that was not the case.
"No, not at all," said the senior guard, who also had 7 steals and 4 rebounds. "We worked extremely hard. We wanted this so bad for each and every one of us."
After Larson's go-ahead basket, her teammate Lindsay Brust (10 points, 6 rebounds) came up with a steal. Fitzgerald was fouled with 7.1 seconds on the clock, sending her to the line for a one-and-one. She sank the first and then, after Lakes attempted to ice her by calling a timeout, calmly knocked down the second free throw.
"In warmups, I did not make a free throw, so when I went up to that line, I was very nervous," said Fitzgerald, who scored all 4 of her points in the fourth quarter. "But my teammates are super supportive. They were helping me through it. At the timeout, they were calming me down. They said, 'Maura, it's OK. You got it.' When I went up to the line, I just tried to zone everybody out."
"Huge free throws," Ikenn said. "That kid plays her heart out at both ends of the floor. To have a young point guard like that go to the free-throw line and drain 2 in clutch time, that says an awful lot about the kid."
Despite never trailing by more than six, Lakes didn't take its first lead until sophomore Sara Smith (4 points) flipped in a shot with 5:55 left in the fourth to make it 30-28. Mia Edwards (4 points) answered Fitzgerald's basket to give the Eagles a 32-30 advantage with 2:07 to go.
"We went back to basics for two days," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said. "We executed basics and gave ourselves a chance."
Lakes had one more chance in the final seconds, but Grayslake Central's Ania Barnes (5 points) got a steal (the Eagles' 23rd turnover) to seal the win for the Rams, who started the season 0-3.
"We worked hard in practice at the beginning (of the season), but once we realized how much talent we have, our practices have been completely different," Fitzgerald said. "We don't really joke around. We're always working hard. Everybody's focused. And off the court, we're a team. We're always joking around."
Isabella Quaranta came off Lakes' bench to score a team-high 9 points. Sarah Zellmann, Natalie Pawlak and Shannon Hurlbut each hit a 3-pointer.
"All in all, it was a great effort," Phelan said. "We had 6 empty possessions at the end of the game. They were good looks. We just missed shots. I'm not upset. We played well."