Cary-Grove finds its second wind
It was as if the Cary-Grove girls basketball team took a deep breath and then found its second wind at the perfect time.
After watching Rolling Meadows rally from a 16-point second-quarter deficit to close to within a point with 6:52 left in the game, the Trojans shut the door.
They pitched a shutout the rest of the way with 10 unanswered points in a 47-36 triumph in the quarterfinals of the Mundelein Christmas tournament.
The Trojans (14-1) will face Zion-Benton in Wednesday’s 7:30 p.m. semifinal.
Cary-Grove coach Ron Saffert was not exactly miffed after Meadows made the big surge on his team.
“We’ve played nine games the last three weeks, one every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday,” he said. “That’s tough. You are going to have a little letdown.
“Our girls played a really hard first quarter (holding Meadows to 6 points). You can’t do much better than that. Rolling Meadows (9-3) did a great job coming back and is a very good team.”
Northern Illinois-bound Claire Jakubicek had a very good game, scoring a game-high 17 points for the Trojans.
Olivia Jakubicek’s 8-footer with 4:22 left started the closing 10-0 run, followed by a big 3-pointer by Megan Straumann.
Claire Jakubicek then made 3-of-4 free throws and completed the 10-0 run with a steal and layup, following a rebound on her own miss.
“Claire’s 17 points were the hardest she has earned all season,” Saffert said. “They did a great job on her but great players find a way to get the job done. And she did a great job for us.”
Claire Jakubicek, who averages 19 points and 9 rebounds, felt her team let down defensively in the middle of the game.
“We weren’t putting as much pressure on them as we were early,” she said. “But when it was a tight game at the end, we came on strong again.”
The Mustangs’ big third-quarter run was sparked by two 3-pointers from senior guard Maddie Conlin and one apiece from Amanda Gunn (6 points) and Ann Marie Lynch. Morgan Keller also had a pair of inside buckets in the rally.
“It was kind of like our Hersey game (42-36 loss Friday night,” said Meadows coach Todd Hatfield. “We had two or three straight possessions there where we just couldn’t get over the hump (after closing to within 37-36).
“I truly believe we have the talent to beat anyone but right now we are beating ourselves. Unless we get over that mental block, we’ll be stuck in the gutter for a while.”
Conlin finished with 15 points while freshman Jennifer Vliet had 8.
“After not many points the night before, Maddie got going again for us,” Hatfield said. “We’ve got a lot of ability on this team. We just can’t get caught up in the physicality of the game.”
Joslyn Nicholson’s layup with 6:04 left in the third quarter put the Trojans ahead 32-18 before Meadows proceeded to go on a 14-2 run to get back into the game.
“We had to do a great job pressuring the ball in the fourth quarter because they were making all those 3s in the third quarter,” Claire Jakubicek said. “We tried to stop that in the fourth quarter and I thought we did a good job.”