Huff, Dupree lead Grant's spree
It was a pick-your-poison situation for the Antioch boys basketball team Friday night.
And the Sequoits picked wrong.
In an effort to slow Grant 6-foot-6 center John Kerr, who is averaging around 20 points and 10 rebounds, Antioch switched from its normal man defense to a zone defense. The idea was to pack the lane and limit Kerr's space and touches.
What the Sequoits were willing to give up in the zone was the long ball. And they sure gave up a few. Actually, more than a few.
"We thought we'd roll the dice with our defense and do something different," Antioch coach Jim White said. "And you know what? … That is on me."
The "that" that White is referring to is the fact that Grant responded to the paint-centric defense by draining 10 3-pointers en route to a breezy 69-49 Northern Lake County Conference win over the visiting Sequoits.
Grant improves to 12-7 overall and 7-1 in the NLCC. Antioch, which has lost five straight games, drops to 7-13 and 2-7 in the conference.
Michael Huff led the way from long range for Grant with six 3-pointers. He finished with a game- and career-high 24 points. Kyle Dupree came off the bench to drill three 3-pointers and had 16 points.
Kerr was still a handful for Antioch and rolled up 18 points in spite of the zone.
"We were just all moving around, trying to find the open man and me and Kyle were just the open ones a lot," said Huff, who hit three 3-pointers in a row to help Grant blow the doors off early in the third quarter. His barrage gave the Bulldogs a 23-point lead with about five minutes left in the quarter. "We just took advantage when we got the ball.
"Every team we face always thinks that John is the biggest problem but we also have a deep bench and so many guys who can shoot the lights out."
Dupree made his case for that. He nailed a 3 from practically the stands. As the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter, Dupree hit a 3-pointer on the far right side while nearly falling out of bounds near halfcourt. Continuing on that momentum, Dupree then hit two 3-pointers early in the second quarter.
"I just wanted to shoot the ball," Dupree said. "It started going in and I kept shooting it and it still went in. It was just all good from there. We don't always shoot 3s. We like to work inside (to Kerr), then out. But when they're falling, you have to keep taking them."
Grant was up 16-6 at the end of the first quarter and had a 14-point lead at halftime. The lead got up to as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter.
"If they are open shots, I feel really good about us shooting 3s like that," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "They practice those shots in practice. We have good shooters. We like to go inside to John (Kerr), but if we have those shots and we're open, take them."
Antioch had only one player finish in double-figures. Branden Gallimore had 11 points. The Sequoits were missing three key players to injury: Ben Gutke, Andrew Hare and Peter Boeh.
"We are (hurting) right now and it's a tough situation for us," White said. "But I'm proud of some other things we did tonight. We just chose poorly on defense and giving up the outside tonight."