Halftime speech rallies Skyhawks

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JOHNSBURG – During halftime Thursday against Grayslake Central, Megan Lopez made the first of many necessary motivational speeches.

The scrappy senior point guard and her Johnsburg teammates found themselves trailing the Rams by nine at the break, and Lopez knew exactly what she had to say to flip the ignition switch.

“I said, ‘We might want this game more in our hearts, but Grayslake’s out there showing how bad they want it,’ ” Lopez said.

For the rest of the game there was little doubt which team was determined to pick up the win. After being outscored by nine and giving away 22 possessions in the first half, Johnsburg squelched the Rams’ energy and rallied for a 60-53 victory in a Fox Valley Conference Fox Division showdown.

“Halftime was pretty rough,” Lopez said. “We needed to come together. Grayslake Central controlled the tempo of the game and we didn’t play our pace at all. We needed to slow down and make them play our game.”

Forward Danielle Slivka, between coughs and deep breaths to ease the bronchitis the senior battled through all night, powered the Skyhawks through the second half.

Slivka scored 14 of her game-high 22 points in the second half, including 10 of the Skyhawks’ 17 third-quarter points. Slivka’s layup off a feed from senior forward Krista Volden with 50 seconds left in the third gave Johnsburg
(19-6 overall, 9-1 FVC Fox) its first lead since the first quarter, 44-43.

Johnsburg heated up on the perimeter, too, with Lopez, junior guard Melissa Dixon (15 points) and junior guard Mary Kate Wright each sinking threes.

“At the half, we got screamed at a little bit and coach (Mike Toussaint) just told us how disappointed he was,” Slivka said. “That’s the last thing we want, to disappoint him, and we knew we hadn’t played very good. We came out slow, and that’s just not going to work.”

Grayslake Central (16-6, 9-2) led, 45-44, after a pair of free throws by Skyler Jessop, but Johnsburg took the lead for good at the start of the fourth.

“When they came out in the third and started hitting those threes, we tightened up a little bit,” Grayslake Central coach Roger Lass said. “That first half was the way we intended to play. Everything we knew could happen did, other than that three-pointer.”

That three was so remarkable it deserved to be on an ESPN highlight reel.
Rams junior point guard Alex Scarbro heaved the ball from 10 feet behind the arc and celebrated as it slipped through the net just before the halftime buzzer.

“I think that first possession of the second half (a Slivka layup) might have been the turning point,” Toussaint said. “We started chipping away at it because we were patient. That’s something we’ve struggled with all year.”