Jacobs comes back to beat Deerfield

Jacobs senior point guard Chrishawn Orange knew the shots would fall in his team's favor at some point. It's a good thing those shots fell at the end when Jacobs needed them to the most.

After Deerfield sizzled in the first and third quarters and senior guard Sam Kuznetsky hit Jacobs for 30 points, the Golden Eagles stepped up their defense and rallied back from as many as 7 points down to start the fourth quarter behind Orange and senior Matt Bindi, who knocked down clutch 3-pointers in the final 4 minutes, to give Jacobs a 51-48 win Friday night at the 2014 Ed Molitor Thanksgiving Classic in Palatine to wrap up Pool B play at 2-1. Because of a three-way tie and points allowed, the win sets up a third-place showdown today at 3:15 p.m. with York, a team which also went 2-1 in Pool A play.

Orange, who scored a team-high 21 points, tied it at 41 with his right-wing 3 with 3:25 left. Bindi, who scored 12 and hauled in 8 rebounds, nailed a 3 from the opposite wing on the next Jacobs possession with 2:40 left which prompted a Deerfield timeout. Orange concluded matters with a fadeaway for a 46-41 lead with under 2 minutes to go and hit 5 of his 8 free throws in the final 90 seconds.

"All game we were getting good shots, we just weren't knocking them down," said Orange, who was 6 for 13 from the field with 4 rebounds as the Eagles shot 43.5 percent. "Those last two (3-pointers) went in and that really got us fired up."

Jacobs feverishly outscored the Warriors 19-9 in the fourth as it held Deerfield to 3 of 9 from the field. It also helped that Kuznetsky and Deerfield went cold much as they did in the second when the Warriors shot a 1 for 15 clip for 2 points, giving Jacobs a 25-24 halftime lead. Kuznetsky was hot in the first and third quarters, scoring 15 on three 3-pointers in the first 8 minutes while going for 13 on 5-for-5 shooting and two 3s in the third. But in the fourth Kuznetsky was held to 1 field goal and 2 free throws after going for 26 points on 9 of 16 shooting prior. The Warriors finished at 34 percent shooting for the game and missed 6 fourth-quarter free throws.

"(Kuznetsky) is a good player, we tried to bother him. He scored a bunch," Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts said. "At the same time we held (Deerfield) under 50 for the game so when you hold a team to 50 you should be in good shape. The kid got off a little bit but nobody else really did."

Joey Lane (12 points) and Will Boshes (5 points) rounded out the scoring for Deerfield (2-1), as Lane and Kuznetsky combined for 17 points on five 3-pointers in the first quarter while the two combined to hit 8 of the 24 3s Deerfield chucked up. The Warriors also had 11-straight misses bridging the first and second quarters, as Jacobs got stops and was dominant in the paint thanks to sophomore Cameron Krutwig's 4 blocks and a 26-12 advantage offensively.

"They played really good defensively, (Krutwig) really affected us around the basket," Warriors' coach Dan McKendrick said. "They were really trying to make it difficult for Kuznetsky to get some shots in the second half and give them a ton of credit, they battled us defensively. "

Jacobs played catch up from the get-go as the Warriors sank their first 4 (three 3-pointers), which prompted a Roberts timeout. The Warriors got away again in the third and pushed their biggest lead to 7 on Kuznetsky's jumper at the end of the third, but the defense of Mike Canady, filling in for injured senior Kenton Mack (meniscus), and the size Krutwig (6-foot-8) and Bindi (6-5) was just too much. Krutwig was fouled on a second chance board and his 2 free throws cut the deficit to 3 with 4:46 remaining. Then his long frame prevented a turnover going over his head and he rifled a pass to Orange in the corner for the big trey.

"We tried to stay on a steady line; no peaks, no valleys. Second quarter we did our job," Krutwig said. "Fourth quarter, (we) came up big time. The energy was just rising us back."