Jacobs holds off Cary-Grove
The effective zone defense played by the Cary-Grove boys basketball team on Tuesday gave the Trojans a shot to upset visiting Jacobs, but the Golden Eagles made just enough plays down the stretch to escape Elroy Fitzgerald Gymnasium with a 47-43 victory.
Trailing by 8 points with five minutes left in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game, Cary-Grove (8-1, 1-2) drew within 42-41, thanks to a 9-2 run fueled by a pair of Jason Gregoire 3-pointers and a three-point play by senior forward Nick Barr.
But the Trojans never got the "one more" they sought. After Jacobs guards Kenton Mack and Mike Canady each split two free throws to give Jacobs (12-5, 3-0) a 44-41 lead, the Trojans had possession with a chance to tie. However, Gregoire's 3-pointer from the corner did not fall, much to the chagrin of the Cary-Grove bench, which reacted as though a foul should have been called on defender Mike Canady.
Instead, the Golden Eagles grabbed the rebound and ran some clock with a 3-point lead. Cary-Grove was forced to come out of its zone defense and force the issue by playing man-to-man, however, Jacobs senior guard Chrishawn Orange recognized the switch and attacked for a driving layup and a 46-41 lead with 1:02 to play.
"We needed one more 3 from somebody, one more basket, or one more stop or one more of something to give us the confidence, to give us the momentum," Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schuetzle said. "Right when we went man-to-man, Orange gets it, goes right, scores a layup. Playing against that team man-to-man you can't keep him from getting to the lane without zoning him and pinching him and all that kind of stuff. We were close. Just close isn't good enough against a really good team."
Orange led the Golden Eagles with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, leaving him with 998 career points.
"We were just trying to find open spots," Orange said of attacking the one, "trying to get in there, find shooters when you get in there, find big guys."
Orange and guard Kenton Mack each found Cam Krutwig in the paint early in the fourth quarter and the 6-foot-8 sophomore scored 2 buckets against the zone to help establish the 8-point lead.
"We drew up some sets at halftime and just found open looks, cutters and things like that and got good looks," said Krutwig, who finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds.
"When the game got tight I thought our kids made some pretty good plays against (the zone)," Jacobs coach Jim Roberts said. "We got Cam some touches inside and got some easy layups."
Jacobs won despite committing 8-first half turnovers and losing the rebounding battle 22-16. The Golden Eagles shot 17 of 37 from the field (46 percent) compared to 19 of 48 for Cary-Grove (40 percent).
"We knew it was going to be a dogfight," Roberts said. "Like we say before every game: any way we can score more points than the other team, we'll take it. That's kind of what (Tuesday) was."
Gregoire registered 14 points and 7 rebounds and Barr finished with 11 points for Cary-Grove.