Rough Knight

Trailing the Crystal Lake Central Tigers (19-4, 9-1) in the conference standings, the Grayslake North Knights (16-6, 8-3) could have really used another night like the one they had earlier this season, when they defeated the first-place Tigers.  Unfortunately for Coach Todd Grunloh's team, that wouldn't happen, as the inside-outside game of Central controlled most of the contest, and ended in a flury to win 71-49.

The Tigers tandem of 6'-7" Matt Gleixner, who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds and 6'-6" Jake Chrystal (8 pts, 7assts) came out strong against the smaller Knights from the opening tip-off, and did not let up until the game was out of reach. 

The home team led by 10 early in the second quarter, and the lead probably could have been even larger if not for Knight guard AJ Fish, who hit three consecutive three-pointers in the second quarter to go along with two steals.  The Tigers, though were able to set the tone of the game early, and put the Knights in a hole.

"Their bigs killed us. They were much more physical," said Grunloh.  "Other than AJ, we couldn't hit anything in the first 10 minutes of the game."

"They came out stronger then we did, and that's why we lost," admitted the sophomore Fish, who finished with 4 steals and 23 points, including 12 of the Knights 23 in the first half. 

Just before the halftime buzzer, Gleixner nailed a three pointer to send the crowd into a frenzy with their team leading 35-23.

Senior guard Teddy Ludwick came into the game averaging 19 points per game, but was held scoreless until late in the third quarter when he managed to get to the free throw line.  “I was getting looks, they just wouldn’t fall." he said after the game. 

With his team still leading by by 12 after three quarters, Central Coach Rich Czeslawski anticipated a run by Grayslake North.  "You're always worried when they have players like AJ Fish and Teddy Ludwick," he said.  "They can really get going."

With Fish and Ludwick leading the way, the Knights put up a fight to start the fourth quarter and get back in the game.  The guards traded three-pointers and mid-range jumpers and were able to close in the Tigers. 

A driving layup by Ludwick with just over five minutes left in the game cut the lead to eight, but that would be as close as they would get.  The CL Central adjusted, and seemed to have an answer for every basket they were giving up. 

"We came close, but we couldn't cut into the gap.  We just didn't enough consecutive stops on defense," said Fish. 

The Tigers' backcourt duo of Chase Cane and Joe Pijanowski also got involved in the scoring, combining for 22 points.

Trailing 55-47 with just over four minutes to play and exhausted from playing from behind all game, the Knights legs finally seemed to have gone, and the home team took full advantage and ran away with the lead, finishing the game on a 16-2 scoring run.

The North loss and the Grayslake Central win last night over visiting Johnsburg give the teams identical conference records.  The Rams play Woodstock North next week, while the Knights finish their conference schedule at home against Prairie Ridge.