Boys Basketball: Eagles reel in Rams down the stretch
Updated: November 22, 2011 7:45PM
Tanner Blaine’s put-back with 40 seconds left broke a 60-60 tie and Lakes went on to defeat Grayslake Central 67-62 Tuesday in the second round of the Mundelein tournament.
Lakes is 1-1 and Grayslake Central’s 0-2. Both teams will be back on the floor on Friday.
After Blaine’s bucket, Direll Clark had a steal and layup to make it 64-60 with 26 seconds to play.
A Jordan Taylor put-back with 10 seconds left cut the lead to 64-62, but Lakes closed out the game on the free-throw line.
“Grayslake’s a good team and they’re a team we could face again in the postseason,” Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. “It was a good early-season test for us.”
Lakes lost to Barrington on Monday, but played much better 24 hours later.
Justin Schneider, a 6-foot-8 center, had 13 points, 13 rebounds and drew five offensive fouls (charges) on Ram players.
Clark had 12 points, and Blaine and Jay-Jay Elvir added 10 apiece.
For Grayslake Central, Taylor had a game-high 22 points, and 6-8 Casey Boyle had 17 points and seven rebounds. Tyler Smith added 13 points.
“We didn’t do a good job with our decision-making today,” said Rams coach Brian Moe, whose led by 11 points in the first half and didn’t trail until the final three minutes. “They executed better than we did down the stretch.”
Moe’s team also faded late on Monday in a loss to Mundelein.
“We’ve played far below our capabilities, but we’ve been in both games,” Moe said. “Despite the late run yesterday and the mistakes we made today, we had a chance to win both games.”
Lakes had nine players score in the game.
“Our depth showed today,” Snyder said. “That’s going to help us down the road.
“Right now, we have nine or 10 guys who can play. We got guys back from football last week and we’re working them in. If we utilize our depth, we will have success.”
Grayslake was 24-for-31 from the free-throw line, while Lakes was 11-for-17.
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