advertisement

Crystal Lake South is Reall deal at Johnsburg

Midway through the third quarter, the eventual MVP of the Johnsburg/Richmond-Burton Thanksgiving basketball tournament walked to the bench with 4 fouls.

That was Matt Reall's reality.

"I was a little mad about that," said Reall, Crystal Lake South's 6-foot-5 senior forward/guard.

By game's end, Reall - and the Gators - couldn't have been happier. Really.

Reall scored 7 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth quarter, Ryan Lawson provided a spark off the bench, and Crystal Lake South rallied down the stretch to edge Grayslake North 55-53 in the championship game of the tournament at Johnsburg Saturday.

Junior guard Tyler Miller (10 points) joined MVP Reall on the all-tournament team for the Gators, who went 4-0.

"He had a great tournament," Crystal Lake South coach Matt LePage said of Reall. "He hit a lot of big shots."

Ryan Connolly led Grayslake North (2-2) with game bests of 23 points and 12 rebounds, but the Knights failed to protect a seven-point lead in the fourth. Austin Martineau's layup extended Grayslake North's advantage to 51-44 with 3:25 left. The Knights scored only 2 more points the rest of the way, however, and that was thanks to Connolly's 2 free throws after the Gators were assessed a technical foul with 1:44 to go and trailing 51-50.

"We just made some poor decisions with the ball," coach Todd Grunloh said after his Knights committed 8 turnovers in the fourth. "We need to see the court better."

Reall, whose pair of 3-pointers helped stake Crystal Lake South to a 14-7 lead after one quarter, re-entered the game less than two minutes into the fourth.

"That's usually a little too early, but we got away with it," LePage said. "He's a smart kid. He knows not to commit the fifth (foul)."

LePage called a timeout after Martineau's basket, and the Gators responded with a 6-0 run that took just one minute off the clock. Lawson scored 9 of his 14 points in the fourth. His 4-of-4 shooting included a three-point play as well as a spin move in the lane to get the Gators within 51-48 with 2:21 left.

"Huge fourth quarter (by Lawson)," Reall said. "That was impressive. He had been playing really well all year, just hadn't done a ton of scoring until this game. He told me before the game, 'I want to be more aggressive,' and it showed. He was amazing, finishing everything."

"He played great," LePage added of Lawson. "Senior captain, though."

Trailing in the fourth quarter was nothing new to the Gators. They trailed Lake Zurich late in their season opener, before prevailing in overtime. They drew on that experience Saturday.

"Mr. LePage kept saying how we've been here before and we can do this," Reall said. "We got intense, everybody's head picked up, and we went from there."

Casey Haskin (10 points, 8 rebounds) scored on a putback with 45 seconds left to give the Gators a 54-53 lead, and Reall made a free throw with 3.6 seconds on the clock.

"I thought our fourth quarter was awesome," LePage said. "It was played with energy, and we got some deflections and steals, and turned around our offense a little bit."

Grayslake North suffered a tough break when sophomore guard Tony Hines II injured his left ankle late in the first quarter. Hines, who had a huge game Friday night (24 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals), did not return.

All-tourney pick Connolly was the Knights' only double-digit scorer. The junior guard played with tape around his right wrist, which he had surgically repaired two summers ago. He missed a week of practice this year because of swelling in the wrist.

"We ask of lot of him, that's for sure," Grunloh said. "We could have probably found some time to give him more breathers (against Crystal Lake South), but when Tony's down and everyone's got four fouls, they're few and far between."

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.