Grayslake Central still has rival's number

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:50AM

The old saying goes that when two rivals meet in an athletic contest, throw out the records because they don't mean anything.

When Grayslake North traveled to Grayslake Central on Tuesday hoping to end an eight-game losing streak to the Rams in boys basketball, that saying held true.

In fact, Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe was counting on record of the two teams being meaningless in the clash, that's because the Rams came in losers of eight of their first 13 games this season while the Knights were unbeaten in the Fox Valley Fox and sporting 10 wins in 13 games.

Grayslake Central continued its mastery of its sister school with an impressive 63-49 victory in front of a large and noisy home crowd.

"I think we are a pretty good 5-8 team," said Moe after the win. "We play in two brutal holiday tournaments (at Mundelein and Bloomington/Normal) against some very good teams, so I'm not too worried about our record right now.

"I'm more concerned with playing our best basketball after Christmas against teams in our conference and in the regional."

Moe's players weren't concerned with previous losses when they jumped out to an 18-8 lead after one quarter, as the inside play of 6-foot-6 senior C.J. Stempeck (14 points), 6-8 junior Casey Boyle (13 points) and 6-5 senior Tim Abbott (nine points off the bench) caused plenty of problems for Grayslake North (10-3, 2-1).

"We wanted to pressure their guards to prevent the entry passes, but that didn't happen," said Grayslake North coach Todd Grunloh. "We just let them pass the ball inside without any problem.

"Once we got down (by double digits), we were able to fight back to take the lead, but doing that used up a lot of energy and we are not as deep as them."

Senior guard Teddy Ludwick poured in 10 of his game-high 19 points in the second quarter for the Knights to cut the Rams' lead to 26-25 a at halftime.

Grayslake Central quickly regained control of the game in the third quarter behind the inside-outside combination of Boyle and junior guard Jordan Taylor (team-high 17 points). Solid full-court defense by the Rams throughout the second half also took its toll on the Knights.

When Abbott converted a pair of free throws with just over six minutes left in the contest, the Rams has comfortable 48-37 lead. Grayslake North could not mount a comeback, as Grayslake Central made good on 13 of 17 free throws in the final eight minutes.

"I guess you can say the demise of Grayslake Central has been greatly exaggerated," joked Moe. "No really, it's a big win for our kids. This is a game they really wanted."

Grayslake North will get a chance to stop its nine-game losing streak to Grayslake Central on Wednesday Feb. 2, in a rematch in the Knights' gym.

"That's all we can do is to continue to try to get better and keep things going forward," said Grunloh.

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