Fast start propels Jacobs past McHenry
Jacobs didn’t crash and burn once it cooled off after a torrid shooting start in Tuesday night’s Fox Valley Conference Valley Division boys basketball game against McHenry.
The Golden Eagles turned missed shots into extra opportunities as they crashed the offensive boards and burned the Warriors for 13 extra-chance points.
And that proved to be a big difference as Jacobs moved into sole possession of second place in the division with a 57-47 victory at McHenry’s West Campus.
“On most every team we’ve got a big size advantage,” said Jacobs 6-foot-5 freshman Cameron Krutwig, who had game highs of 18 points and 9 rebounds. “Crash the glass hard and good things happen.”
Jacobs (11-10, 5-2) hit 8 of 9 shots in the opening 7:16. Its next five field goals came off rebounds by 6-3 Matt Bindi twice, Krutwig, 6-6 Robert Grant and 6-2 Kenton Mack.
Another Krutwig rebound basket off a missed free throw gave the Golden Eagles their largest lead at 50-34 with 4:42 to play. Mack also hit a free throw when he was fouled after a second-quarter offensive rebound.
“They made some key plays there in the first half,” said McHenry coach Tim Paddock.
“With Cam and big Rob and Bindi, that’s a tremendous advantage we have,” Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts said after his team finished with rebound advantages of 38-17 overall and 10-4 offensively. “We’ve been fantastic at rebounding the basketball for a good long stretch here. The challenge is finding guys for them to defend because nobody has (that many) bigs.”
Six-4 senior Reilly Peltier also had 6 rebounds and scored all of his points on three first-quarter jumpers as Jacobs broke out to a 19-8 lead.
“We came out fired up,” Peltier said. “We decided this game we were going to show people what we can do.”
The Golden Eagles also showed they could defend as Mack, Ben Murray and Crishawn Orange combined to hold the dangerous McHenry (9-10, 2-5) duo of senior guards Cody Freund and Greg Johnson to 8 points apiece. They didn’t score in the first half and were a combined 4-for-20 from the field and 1-for-11 from 3-point range.
McHenry shot just 30 percent (15-for-50) from the field and 28 percent behind the arc (7-for-25).
“When we score and have an opportunity to get set defensively,” Roberts said, “I think we’re pretty tough defensively.”
But Jacobs could never completely break away as it committed 8 of its 12 turnovers and missed 7 of 13 free throws in the second half. Consecutive 3s by sophomore Nick Bellich, who was 4-for-6 behind the arc and had 14 points, and Kyle Postal (12 points) got McHenry within 53-47 at 1:24.
But Orange found Murray for a layup 12 seconds later to give Jacobs a big, if not entirely satisfying, road victory.
“It was tough, but we held our composure,” Krutwig said after an 8-point, 6-rebound fourth quarter.
“We felt like we should have won by a lot more,” Peltier said. “But a win is a win, ugly or not. We’re going to take it and build some momentum going to play Prairie Ridge (at Jacobs on Saturday).”