Jacobs defense stifles Cary-Grove
The Jacobs boys basketball team derived Tuesday’s motivation from last Saturday’s box score, the one in which the Golden Eagles allowed 25 points in the third quarter of an 11-point loss at Crystal Lake South.
Determined to play better defensively, Jacobs snapped its 3-game losing streak by holding Cary to 31-percent shooting in a 47-33 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victory in Algonquin.
“The seniors got together with the team before the game and said we wanted to give up less than 40 (points), and that’s what we did,” Jacobs guard Nick Hofman said. “We came out with a purpose today.”
Jacobs (13-11, 5-2) led just 16-12 at halftime but took complete control with a 16-0 run to open the third quarter.
“Early in the game we couldn’t buy a basket, but we were playing well defensively and it was a matter of time before we started putting our shots in,” Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said. “We stopped the bleeding a little bit tonight. It’s been a rough stretch.”
The win gave Jacobs a season sweep of Cary-Grove (10-14, 4-5). The Golden Eagles also won a double-overtime game in Cary on Jan. 21. Trojans senior point guard Nick Richter scored 25 points in the first meeting, but he was held to 14 in Tuesday’s rematch.
Richter was guarded by senior Matt Ehrhardt, who was hampered by early foul trouble when the teams met last month.
“He takes pride in his defense and he works really hard,” Richter said of Ehrhardt. “He gets you running. He slowed me down offensively by making me run and work to get open shots.”
“I felt defense helped us win that game,” said Ehrhardt, who scored 9 points to go with 3 steals. “We shut them down and they couldn’t get anything out of their offense.”
Ehrhardt opened the second half with a transition basket, and Hofman followed with another fast-break bucket, sparked by Colin Richman’s steal.
Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schuetzle called a timeout to stop the momentum, but the Golden Eagles kept coming on strong. Hofman scored on a tip in, Jon Kowalski notched a putback, Ehrhardt was fouled on a putback attempt and sank 2 free throws and Hofman scored on an easy layup, courtesy of Mike Peterson’s no-look assist.
Kowalski capped the surge by making a steal and scoring at the other end on an inside feed from Hofman.
“We just wanted to shut down (Richter) and lock down defensively,” Kowalski said. “We just got steals, got on the fast break and scored in transition.”
Jacobs capitalized on Cary-Grove’s 17 turnovers while committing only 9 of its own.
“When you turn the ball over up top, it’s layups,” Schuetzle said. “And they probably had two or three of those in the third quarter and their lead went from 4 to 10 — bam! — just like that. They just had momentum and we struggled. We couldn’t get into the lane with penetration.”
Hofman led Jacobs with 25 points and 13 rebounds — his first double-double of the season — to go with 3 steals. Kowalski added 9 points and 5 rebounds.