Jacobs trio keys win over Cary-Grove
Jacobs boys basketball coach Jimmy Roberts considers the senior guard trio of Ryan Phillips, Kameron Mack and Nik Balkcom dependably interchangeable.
When Phillips finished with 19 points, Mack 14 and Balkcom 13 in Wednesday's 60-46 Fox Valley Conference home win over Cary-Grove, the fifth-year Jacobs coach said he wouldn't have blinked had the three scorers finished in reverse order.
"You could put the numbers 19, 14 and 13 and then just put any one of those three names next to it," Roberts said. "I think that's what make us pretty tough to guard. Ryan made some early. Nik got going in the second half. If one guy maybe is having trouble shooting the basketball, we have several other guys that can come in and score."
Phillips scored 16 points in the first half, including the first and last buckets of the half. His 3-pointer with four seconds remaining in the second quarter was his fifth of the first half. His accuracy helped the Golden Eagles shoot 48 percent from the field (24 of 50) and 35 percent from distance (6 of 17).
"It's one of those nights when I kind of got it going in the first half, but that's just kind of the flow of the offense," Phillips said. "We all came together in the second half. We hit a lot of shots and 60 points is a big thing, but our defense wasn't great."
Cary-Grove (6-9, 2-4) stayed within arm's length of the lead most of the game, thanks to 3-point shooting. Seven different Trojans sank a 3-pointer, led by 2 apiece from junior Ryan Rice and sophomore Beau Frericks.
A Frericks 3-pointer with 1:35 left in the third quarter drew the Trojans within 39-34, but Mack answered with a 3-pointer at the other end, Phillips split two free throws and Balkcom scored on a lefty drive just before the third-quarter buzzer to give Jacobs a 45-34 lead.
Jacobs (13-2, 5-0) won the battle of the boards 29-22 and forced the Trojans into 24 turnovers, 15 in the second half.
"You can't beat a team that good if you turn the ball over like that," Cary-Grove coach Adam McCloud said. "We had 15 in the second half. It's disappointing, but I'm proud of my guys because they competed. They never go away. That's the best team in the league and we're a young team trying to get better. It's just disappointing to come in here with high aspirations of competing but we didn't have enough. We didn't have enough."
Sam Carhart sank all 8 of his free throws and made a 3-pointer to finish with a team-best 13 points, Rice finished with 9 points and Frericks 8 for Cary-Grove, which is off until next Tuesday when Rolling Meadows visits Cary.
Jacobs plays at Prairie Ridge on Friday and at West Aurora on Saturday.