Jacobs lights up South Elgin
At the conclusion of practice every Thursday, the Jacobs boys basketball team routinely shoots half court shots just in case it’s needed in game situations.
Little did Golden Eagles’ sophomore Chrishawn Orange know how far his half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first quarter would go on Friday.
The shot cut an early South Elgin lead to 1 point and would be a major catalyst that signaled the beginning of the end for the Storm, who squandered away the lead in the second quarter and coughed up 13 turnovers in the third that allowed a 6-point halftime Jacobs lead to morph into a 67-50 blowout at the Jacobs Holiday Tournament.
Jacobs (8-6) will take on Bartlett today at 4:30 p.m. for the Consolation A championship while South Elgin will play Elk Grove at noon.
Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle’s wallet lucked out as his squad was unsuccessful in matching his age of 70 on a Friday for free Buffalo Wild Wings. But the Golden Eagles did win for the sixth time in their last eight games.
“Last time they won it cost me $350 bucks,” laughed Hinkle, referring to a win against Barrington earlier this season. “I was really bittersweet about that. I thought we had a great game and I’m glad we didn’t hit that last 3. All the kids were yelling on the bench for that last 3 to go in. I was yelling, ‘No! No!’ ”
Will Schwerdtmann led the Golden Eagles with 20 points and 6 rebounds, while Lake Ojo added 11 points and 6 rebounds and Orange chipped in 8 points.
Before Orange’s heave, South Elgin (4-13) led 20-16. Matt McClure (13 points) and Darius Wells (9 points) were on fire as both combined to hit 3 from long range on 5 for 8 shooting.
But it went downhill for South Elgin after Orange’s shot as Jacobs grabbed a 14-7 second-quarter advantage that featured just 2 Storm buckets. Ryan Billings’ drive with 4:52 left gave Jacobs the lead and the Eagles never looked back.
Ojo sparked an 18-2 run to start the third after a bucket, steal and an old-fashioned 3-point play. Schwerdtmann also canned 6 in that stretch and the rout was on. Jacobs had 6 steals in the third quarter and South Elgin committed 21 turnovers overall while shooting 11 of 32 from the second quarter on.
“We pained the walls with turnovers today. Our passing, fundamentals ... very lackadaisical with our passes,” Storm coach Chaz Taft said. “After playing so well the last two games, I just felt like we kind of took a back seat and was like ‘OK, we got two in-a-row’ and you can’t do that. If you want to be a player on the team, you have to bring it every day. You can’t bring it when you want to bring it.”