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Girls Basketball: Grayslake Central battles back to top Carmel
Grayslake Central's Skyler Jessop (33) | Michelle LaVigne~Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 20, 2011 10:16PM
Grayslake Central squandered an eight-point halftime lead, but scored the final seven points of the game to beat Carmel 38-31 on Tuesday on Day 3 of the Blue Devil Classic at Warren in Gurnee.
The Rams (11-2) have won 11 straight and are 3-0 in this event. They will face Warren at 6 on Wednesday night in the semifinals.
Carmel tied the game at 31-31 on a baseline drive by Leah Lache with 5:18 left to play.
But Grayslake pitched a shutout the rest of the way and took the lead for good on Morgan Dahlstrom’s three-point play with 5:03 left.
Skyler Jessop (game-high 16 points) and Savannah Mudd each hit one free throw and Jessop hit two free throws with 22 seconds left ot wrap up the win.
“We knew it was going to be a tough defensive struggle and it didn’t disappoint,” said Grayslake coach Steve Ikenn. “We told the girls one of the reasons we stress defense is because there are times when we are going to struggle (on offense).
“Carmel is a really good defensive team and we kind of got bogged down. The good news is we were able to hold them down too.”
Kaitlynn Lynch had 10 points for Carmel, which outscored Grayslake 16-8 after trailing 23-15 at halftime to forge the tie.
“Our bread-and-butter is easy buckets and fastbreak layups,” said Carmel coach Kelly Perz. “I thought we did a really good job in the first and third quarters, but not in the second and fourth.
“We didn’t take enough shots on offense and didn’t make the layups we had. You can’t play two quarters and expect to beat a good team.”
Jessop knew the Rams needed to deal with Carmel’s press.
“We knew Carmel had a really good press,” she said. “In practice, we’ve been working on breaking the press against eight people. We’ve been grabbing teachers to give us a taller and faster look. I thought that really helped us tonight. If we can do it against eight, we should be able to do it agaisnt five.”
Carmel (8-5) is 2-1 in this tourney and will face Niles North (3-0) at 7:30 on Wednesday.
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