Wauconda senior forward Garrison Carter scored 26 points Wednesday night to spark the Bulldogs to a 65-42 win over Grayslake Central in Northern Lake County Conference boys basketball action.

Naperville Central dispatched the host Eagles 83-46 at the MLK Lakes High School boys basketball tournament Saturday afternoon in the semifinal round.

The Grant boys basketball team has been on a nice run of late, winners of three in a row and four of its last six. During that span, Grant downed North Chicago by 42 points (76-34), Round Lake by 30 (64-34) and beat Northern Lake County Conference leader Grayslake Central by 14 (56-42).

Brendan Whalen crippled Lakes with his inside-outside game, scoring 14 of his game-leading 20 points in the first half in a 45-33 boys basketball win in Grayslake Wednesday.

Ethan McGruder just wrapped up a memorable weekend in style on Saturday afternoon. The Lakes senior guard buried a falling-down 3-pointer with 0.2 seconds left to carry the Eagles to a thrilling 69-68 victory over Wauconda in Northern Lake Country Conference boys basketball action in Lake Villa.

The positives keep rolling in for the Wauconda boys basketball team. The Bulldogs were 10-2 heading into the new year after winning the Marengo E.C. Nichols tournament.

For the first time in almost a decade, Wauconda’s boys basketball team was able to lift the championship trophy at the E.C. Nichols Holiday Tournament in Marengo, rolling past Genoa-Kingston 88-55 on Thursday for the title.“It’s great to go home with hardware,” Bulldogs coach Scott Luetschwager said. “2012 was the last time we won. It’s good to have this.”The Bulldogs (10-2) jumped out of the gate hot behind a strong first quarter from Griffin Daun, who poured in 8 of his 22 points in the opening quarter as Wauconda scored the first 10 points and led by as much as 25-7 in the first.“Today was tough,” Genoa-Kingston coach Ethan Franklin said. “They’re one of the best teams we’ll play. They’ve got talent all over the board, size, and they were making tough shots. I don’t think we played horrible in that first bit, but those are runs that are hard to withstand.”Daun added 6 rebounds and led five Bulldogs in double figures against the Cogs (9-3). He was 10 of 16 from the floor in the win.“That’s how he plays,” Luetschwager said. “That’s a typical game for him. He just has a tendency to hang in the air for a while.”Nicolas Brinas and Garrison Carter added 14 points each for Wauconda while Justin Drobnik and Braeden Carlsen each poured in 13.Luetschwager said the offense starts in transition for the Bulldogs, and Thursday was no exception.“We just try to play our style and be who we are,” Luetschwager said. “We were able to get up and down, score in transition. The guys have been having a lot of fun. Ever since last Friday’s game against Barrington, they’ve been playing with a lot of confidence.”The Cogs got as close as 12 in the second quarter after Chase Engel hit a pair of free throws, but trailed by 20 or more for all of the second half.“We wanted to force them into taking tough, contested twos. And they made them,” Franklin said. “That was our issue.”Jake Oates scored 17 to lead the Cogs while Alec Golembiewski added 14. Oates also had 7 boards to lead Genoa while Draubnik, Carter and Carlsen also had 7 each for Wauconda.Even though the tournament ended with a lopsided loss in the title game, Franklin said a quarterfinal win over Sycamore and a semifinal win over Big Northern Conference foe Rockford Christian has the Cogs primed for a second-half run.“Anytime you get three out of four wins it’s a success,” Franklin said. “The week for sure was a success for us. Obviously you don’t want to have a result like that in the championship game, but three wins — one against a conference school and one against a rival like Sycamore — I thought our guys are starting to begin our ascent to being the team we should be.”

Lake County area boys basketball teams are headed to places such as Collinsville, Pekin, Centralia and Pontiac next week— here, there and everywhere.

Will Grudzinski’s trip gave Barrington a safe landing Wednesday in the Broncos’ 50-39 boys basketball victory over Grayslake Central at the Hinkle Holiday Classic at Jacobs in Algonquin.

Welcome back, Exzavier Meyer.You too, Jack Schirmer.Marengo was less beleaguered with the return of several sick or injured players in Monday’s game against Grayslake North.Meyer and Schirmer, two seniors who had been out, came through with some critical plays late as the Indians held off North, 64-62, in the first round of the 71st Annual E.C. Nichols Holiday Classic at Homer “Bill” Barry Gymnasium.