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Extra-focused Grant tops Grayslake Central

Topping the list of priorities for the Grant boys basketball team on Friday night was to maintain 32 minutes of focus.

The last time the Bulldogs faced Grayslake Central, they felt they lost focus too many times, and that resulted in a narrow loss on the road in their first Northern Lake County Conference game of the season.

They were wanting to be totally dialed in for the rematch on their own court.

"We were just all into the game and focused," Grant senior guard Michael Huff said. "We were just all in one mindset and ready.

"Even before the game (in the locker room), we were all just focused, listening to music. We weren't goofing off. We just really wanted to be focused tonight for the entire game."

Little did the Bulldogs know that staying focused for the entire game would require quite a bit more effort than usual.

It took not one overtime, but two overtimes, for a total of 40 minutes of focus, for Grant to exact its revenge. The Bulldogs pulled out a 63-59 double overtime win over visiting Grayslake Central to move to 5-2 in the Northern Lake County Conference and 9-10 overall.

Grayslake Central, which started out league play with a 5-0 record, drops to 5-4 in the NLCC and 8-11 overall.

Grant had to overcome an 8-point halftime deficit, 19 turnovers and 6-of-16 free throw shooting.

"It was an exciting game," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "We were just telling our guys in the locker room that they didn't give up. There were a lot of reasons we could have hung our head a little bit...from our free throw shooting to our unforced turnovers and mistakes that we had, but we didn't. We kept crawling back. I give our guys credit for fighting for the full...how ever many minutes that was."

Yep, it was 40 minutes, the equivalent of a college game.

In the final extra session, Grant got all of its 8 points from Huff (2 points) and junior forward Matt McGraw (6 points).

Huff broke up a 59-59 tie with a driving layup with 21.4 seconds remaining while McGraw scored 2 baskets earlier in the period in the paint. McGraw, who also had 3 big rebounds in the second overtime, then iced the game by hitting 2 free throws with just 1 second left.

"This was a long one, but this is a big game for us since we lost to them earlier in the year," McGraw said. "It was kind of a payback game. We want to be one of the top teams in the conference every year, if not the top team, so losing conference games isn't something we want to do."

McGraw finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds while Huff had a game-high 22 points, including three 3-pointers. The Bulldogs also got double-figures from junior guard Henry Kusiak (15 points) and Torren Curry (10 points, including two 3-pointers).

Grayslake Central got off to a hot start. In building their 8-point halftime lead (35-27), the Rams were super efficient. They went 6-of-7 from the field in the first quarter and 8-of-9 in the second quarter.

"We had kind of been struggling coming into this game and I just told the kids to go out there and leave it all on the floor and that was evident in the way we played tonight," Grayslake Central coach Kosta Kougias said. "I can't get angry or be upset at the fact that we lost a game in double overtime on the road.

"You look at both teams and they are just so evenly matched. But hats off to Grant. They knocked down shots when they had to at the end. The game could have gone either way and it just didn't go our way tonight."

Grant climbed back into the game by holding Grayslake Central to just 1 field goal in the third quarter. That cut the Bulldogs' deficit to 4 points (39-35) heading into the fourth quarter. Grant outscored Grayslake Central 14-10 in the fourth quarter to force the first overtime.

Grayslake Central was led in scoring by Chris Thomas with 16 points, including three 3-pointers. Tony Crews added 15 points on two 3-pointers.

"This is a good game for us because the last few games we haven't been playing our best basketball," Thomas said. "Now we finally decided to come out and play for each other and the name on our jerseys instead of just for ourselves. It ended in a loss, but we all played tough and we all played hard for 32 minutes ... actually more than that tonight. It was just a hard-fought game."

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