Impressive first half carries Jacobs past Cary-Grove

It was a good news, bad news night for the Cary-Grove boys basketball team.

The good news was that the Trojans outscored Jacobs 36-30 in the second half.

Unfortunately for Cary-Grove, the Golden Eagles were up 36-15 at halftime.

The result was the No. 1 Golden Eagles, who remained undefeated for the season, cruised past Cary-Grove 66-51 in Fox Valley Conference action in Algonquin Wednesday.

"We had to change some things up at halftime offensively and defensively," said Cary-Grove coach Adam McCloud. "I thought we really competed in the second half and played much better at both ends."

The Jacobs (14-0, 5-0) defense held Cary-Grove senior guard Zach Beaugureau scoreless in the first half. Beaugureau spearheaded the Trojans' comeback in the second half with 12 points during the final 16 minutes including a 3-pointer.

"We really played solid defense on Beaugureau in the first half," said Jacobs coach Jim Roberts. "He attacked the basket more in the second half and his shots were falling."

It was the inside presence of Cam Krutwig and the outside sniping of Ryan Phillips which lifted the Golden Eagles to a 21-point advantage at intermission.

Connecting on all 4 shots he attempted Krutwig scored 11 points during the first half while Phillips scored 9 first half points.

With Phillips burying a 3-pointer from the beyond the arc, the Golden Eagles opened up a 25-point, 49-25 advantage with 2:46 left in the third quarter.

The strong-minded Trojans didn't quit and scored the final 9 points of the quarter on a pair of 3s from Dan Clarke and a trey from Beaugureau to cut the Jacobs deficit to 49-34 after 24 minutes of play.

Cary-Grove scored the first 6 points of the fourth quarter to complete a 15-0 run. A 3-pointer from Luc Bressett pulled Cary-Grove within 49-40 with 5:11 left in the game.

The Trojans couldn't get any closer.

A 3-pointer from Cooper Schwartz with 5 minutes left broke a 5 minute, 46 second scoreless streak and gave Jacobs a double-digit lead, 52-40.

Phillips, with 4 treys, was the game-high scorer with 24 points.

"I was really feeling my shot especially in the third quarter," said Phillips. 'The guys gave me great passes all night and my shots were falling."

Krutwig filled the stat sheet with 18 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocked shots for the winners,

Beaugureau, with all his points in the second half, was the lone Trojan in double figures with 12 points.