Huntley downs Chargers to take 3rd place

Huntley's strength this season lies in its perimeter shooting, but Saturday's 45-42 victory over Dundee-Crown in the third-place game of the Leland G. Strombom Boys Basketball Holiday Tournament proved these Red Raiders can win a game in more ways than one.

In a contest that featured intense defensive efforts by both teams, Dundee-Crown (1-2) blanketed Huntley's 3-point shooters throughout, limiting the Raiders to 5 attempts from 3-point range all night.

Nevertheless, Huntley (2-1) broke away from a 30-30 tie by scoring the first 10 points of the fourth quarter.

Zac Boster was fouled on a drive and sank 2 free throws, Dan Regan made a steal and went coast to coast for an old-fashioned three-point play, Dan Giordano sank one of Huntley's rare 3-pointers in the game and Mike Gonzaga converted a Jordan Neukirch steal into a points at the other end for a 40-30 lead with 3:52 to play.

"The thing that I liked is that we played a team that got in our face as opposed to zoning us or laying off so there weren't very many outside-shooting opportunities, but we were still able to find ways to score," Huntley coach Marty Manning said. "That's the thing I'll carry away from this game, that we can score that way."

Giordano led the Red Raiders with 14 points, 7 of which were the direct result of his 3 steals.

"Coach didn't want us overplaying too much because he saw that they were back-dooring it a lot in the first two games," Giordano said. "I just kind of read their eyes and kept up the defensive pressure in the second half."

Dundee-Crown didn't go quietly. Though the Chargers opened the fourth quarter by making 5 turnovers and missing their first 3 shot attempts, they pulled within 40-35, thanks to a Michael Hughes baseline jumpshot in transition followed by Hughes' three-point play with 1:39 to play.

But the Chargers missed a pair of free throws that could have trimmed the deficit to 3 points with 1:19 left and couldn't take advantage when Huntley missed the front end of a pair of bonus situations.

However, Jeff Beck's late 3-pointer did cut the margin to 43-42 with 5.3 seconds left. Neukirch answered by sinking 2 free throws with 5.3 seconds remaining, and Beck's desperation 3-point attempt to tie the game bounded off the front rim at the buzzer.

"I just told our guys in (the locker room) that the effort coming back was great," Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said. "Obviously, we have some deficiencies, like a lot of teams do. We'll just have to work on improving in those areas, get better every day and, hopefully, find our groove."