On a night plagued with turnovers and missed opportunities, the Grayslake Central Rams came out on top over the Lake Forest Scouts in a double overtime thriller. The visiting Rams won a back and forth battle by a 48-40 score.

The game started slowly between both sides with neither squad able to get anything going offensively. The first quarter ended with the Scouts leading 9-6. The home team then pushed the lead to 16-8 as a stout defense forced the Rams into long possessions and poor shots. Points were spread out through all Scouts’ players during the first half which came to a close with a low score of 16-11.

A tight third quarter dominated by free throws and points inside ended with a score of 28-21. Both teams turned the ball over numerous times and fast break opportunities were plentiful. Grayslake Central missed countless layups but forced sloppy possessions which kept them in it.

Quarter four saw the Scours score a dismal three points which allowed the Rams to ultimately send the game into overtime. Grayslake Central made up much of the deficit through the charity stripe as they found themselves in the bonus early. A Grayslake Central three pointer knotted the game up at 31 with 17.7 seconds left in regulation. The Scouts would ultimately miss the last two shots which came with around four ticks of the clock remaining. Grant Kaus shot a contested three pointer which failed to find the nylon and Michael Pasquella’s missed second chance opportunity sent the game into overtime.

The first overtime was slow as neither team got much going until the very end. Coby Moe drilled a long three pointer for the Rams which put them up 36-33 with 15 seconds remaining. Coach Phil LaScala called a timeout with 3.5 left after the Scouts failed to get much going. He drew up a play which consisted of a back door screen from Jack Bender who found himself open from beyond the arc. Bender took advantage of the opportunity and sent the game into double overtime tied at 36.

Finally, the second overtime period was dominated by free-throws from the visitors. A majority of their points came from the charity stripe which gave them the win, 48-40 as the Scouts were unable to replicate the same success at the free throw line.

Crawford Bolton led the Scouts with 12 points and Michael Pasquella added seven assists and nine rebounds. Bolton and Jake Fisher, two of the Scouts’ senior leaders, combined for 10 turnovers which made it difficult to come away with a win. An awful 5-13 from the free throw line as a team, 38%, didn’t help either.

Lake Forest fell to (2-3) and Grayslake Central improved to (2-3). The Scouts are back in action on December 4th in their first conference game at 7:00 PM. Mundelein comes to the competition gym and Scout Nation will be selling t-shirts during lunch periods later in the week for the conference opener.