Deerfield knocks off Grant
Hitting the road is never an easy task for any basketball team.
For Grant's boys Saturday night, the Bulldogs had a tall order dealing with the lengthy height of Deerfield.
Grant did have the benefit of the Warriors playing without two of their starters - 6-foot-10 Brandon Lieb and 6-foot-7 Walt Mattingly, who were each serving a one-game suspension after an altercation led to their ejections from Friday night's Central Suburban North win over Maine West.
The Bulldogs had worked an 11-point second quarter deficit into a 6-point advantage into the final quarter but Grant saw Deerfield score the final 10 points and the Warriors pulled out a 43-38 victory in a nonconference game at Deerfield.
"We took the lead in the second half and controlled it for the most part," Grant coach Wayne Bosworth said. "We're disappointed because we gave it away. It wasn't the effort that we needed and that's not good. We couldn't take care of the ball. Anytime that we tried to drive the lane, we would turn the ball over. We just have to do better with the fundamentals - dribbling, pivoting. jump stopping, ball faking - and we have to make a pass over two defenders."
Grant (5-3) took a 31-30 lead into the final quarter and went on a 7-3 run that pushed the lead out to 38-33 with 6:18 remaining. Henry Kusiak (team-high 11 points) hit a timely 3-pointer, while Tavarus Williams (6 points) and Hunter Waszkowski (10 points) each hit short jump shots.
"We working around their zone and getting the ball free-throw line and center," said Kusiak, who had three 3-pointers. "We had to work off the ball a little bit more and engage opposite defenders a little bit better. We found some shots."
For the remaining minutes, nothing was working in favor of the Bulldogs. They would either miss a shot or turn the ball over.
The Warriors (3-4) went on to score 10 unanswered points the rest of the way.
Jackson Kenyon led Deerfield with 14 points and Ara Emerzian added 10.
"Grant fought us tooth-and-nail for every loose ball and every rebound," Deerfield coach Dan McKendrick said. "I thought our kids did a good job responding. At moments, there was a run by them and then a run by us. We were lucky enough to get the last run. Grant did a good job in the second half, picking up the pace and trying to trap us all over the place. We didn't keep our poise in the traps. But the other thing was that they were hitting some shots and give them credit. Grant was good and we knew it was going to be tough if we had our starters or not."
Grant controlled most of the opening quarter and had an 11-7 lead until Deerfield closed the quarter with a 7-0 run for a 14-11 advantage.
The Warriors kept their string of points going with 8 straight as Colin Ward hit a short jump shot that made the score 22-11 with 5:38 left in the second quarter.
The Bulldogs recovered with 5 straight points, Kusiak capping it off with a layup with 20 seconds left which made the score 22-16 at the break.
Grant came out with some energy in the third quarter with a 15-4 run for a 31-26 lead with 3:20 remaining on Torren Curry's 3-pointer and led going into the final eight minutes.