Huntley rolls as Andrews closes in on record

A long run of sustained success does not have Huntley settling for anything less than its best.

Red Raiders coach Steve Raethz did not like what he saw in the first minute of the second half and burned a timeout even though his team was leading the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division girls basketball game by 16 points at McHenry. They also didn't take lightly seeing their lead cut to 10 late in the third quarter.

Huntley proceeded to turn up the defensive pressure and broke away to a 52-33 victory Wednesday night that was its 13th in a row and 18th in its last 19 games.

"I feel like we were really up and down today," Huntley junior Ali Andrews said after scoring a game-high 23 points. "In previous games we've been more consistent with our defense. We need to pick up our defensive game and get stops."

Andrews moved within 25 points of equaling the program's career record of 1,655 set by Sam Mader. The Illinois recruit will have a shot at it next Tuesday when defending Valley champion Huntley (21-4, 8-0) travels to Crystal Lake South (17-5, 7-1), when the Red Raiders can clinch no worse than a tie for the division title.

Andrews scored 12 points as Huntley took a 17-2 lead after 9½ minutes. But Raethz thought his team could have played better.

"I wasn't real pleased with the way we started," Raethz said. "We have to give a better effort for the full 32 minutes. There are segments of the game where we have to do a better job."

Madisyn Kaempf's rebound basket capped a 9-1 burst which got McHenry (10-14, 2-6) within 30-20 with 1:08 left in the third. But Morgan Clausen banked in an 18-footer from the top of the key and junior point guard Kayla Barreto had 3 consecutive steals to spark a 12-point run.

"Kayla started to play better defense and then everyone did," said Andrews, who scored the final 6 points to push the lead to 42-20. "She got some good steals and that helped to motivate us on the offensive end."

Clausen also had 2 steals during a 19-3 tear where Huntley forced 8 turnovers. Senior Kelli Rubino's 3-point play made it 49-23 with 3:06 left.

"We had a little bit of a lull there and give credit to McHenry for clawing back and fighting back defensively," Raethz said. "I was pleased with the way we responded at the end of the third quarter and made a run.

"We show flashes of doing the things we need to do and other times we have some lapses. We can't have those and we need to shore those up."

Julia Rice hit three 3-pointers and led McHenry with 13 points.