Sports
Rams, Boyle, Grab First Win of Season
Grayslake Central learns some lessons at the Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament.
Jordan Taylor was waiting for some help. And the Grayslake Central junior guard received it on Saturday. It came in a big package known as 6-foot-8 Casey Blake.
Central basketball was looking for its first win of the 2010-11 season. In the annual Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament, it came Saturday. In the 74-61 win over Lakes, Blake showed off his skills with 20 points.
"He was a man-child that night,'' said Central boys basketball coach Brian Moe. "He was grabbing rebounds. He was posting up hard. He was taking the ball to the basket. It was his basketball coming out party."
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With Central's veteran lineup last year, the Rams kept Boyle on the sophomore team for more seasoning.
"We knew he would be a good player,'' Moe said. "We left him down there so he could dominate. He's got a lot of skills.''
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Of course Moe is well aware it's a major jump from sophomore team to the varsity.
"It's a huge adjustment,'' he said. "It's much quicker at the varsity level. But he started showing he could do this on Friday night against Bartlett. And now he can do it against everyone."
Recap: Taylor joined in the scoring column with 19 points against Lakes. CJ Stempeck (6-6) was next with 18 points.
Monday night marked the meeting of coaches Tim Bowen and Moe as Carmel topped Central 58-49. Bowen coached at Grayslake Central and Moe replaced him. The two giants on Moe's team combined for 31 points. That was 17 points from Stempeck and 14 from Boyle. Senior guard Kyle Shepard had three 3-pointers on the way to 11 points.
On Friday, the Rams (1-4) lost a tough game to Bartlett 64-62. Taylor led a balanced attack with 12 points. Also helping out were Stempeck (9 points), Tim Abbott (8 points), Boyle (8 points), Savonte McWilliams (8 points), Sean Kirby (6 points) and Shepard (6 points).
Despite taking some lumps at this annual tourney at Mundelein, Moe has no regrets playing every year in this event.
"It's great for us,'' he said. "It's good for us and Lakes to play the bigger schools.''
The Rams have two games between now and the Christmas vacation. Next up is Dec. 10 at Jacobs and Dec. 16 at Cary-Grove. Both games are at 7 p.m.
"That's the Fox Valley for you,'' Moe said. "We have two weeks off. That's two weeks of practice."
