Milestones for Moran, Benson
It happened in a blink of an eye with 7:28 remaining in the third quarter.
With a flick of the wrist Jacobs senior John Moran swatted the basketball away, recovered it and scored on a drive down the right side to become the Golden Eagles' career scoring leader with 1,551 points, passing 2004 graduate Eric Verneisel.
It took Jacobs a bit longer to put away a feisty Fremd team Saturday night.
Jacobs (6-1), the No. 2 ranked team in the Daily Herald Top 20, entered the final quarter clinging to a 6-point lead, but John Moran and junior Conrad Krutwig each scored 8 points in the final 8 minutes, leading the Eagles to a 57-37 nonconference victory in Palatine.
"It's pretty cool; there have been some good players to come through here," said John Moran who now finds himself perched as the top Eagle. "It's nice to get it on a steal because everybody has been talking about points lately. It's not all about points."
Moran, the honorary co-captain of last year's Daily Herald All-Area team, finished with a game high 19 points converting 8 of 14 field goals, including two 3 pointers. The Northern Iowa recruit also contributed 5 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals for the Eagles.
"The only bad thing about a point record is it doesn't really tell what type of player he is," added Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle whose team defeated Fremd for the first time. "It's only a small part of his game. His leadership, his passing, his defense … he's a complete package."
And with Jacobs only leading 35-29 at the end of three quarters, Moran put all his skills on display in the pivotal fourth quarter
The 6-foot-1 senior opened the final quarter with a reverse lay-in, and then assisted on two easy baskets for Krutwig. Moran then drained a 3-pointer, hit a jumper and then converted 1 of 2 free throws to increase the Eagles' advantage to 55-35 with 1:21 remaining.
"John got the ball out and spread it around," said Krutwig, who finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds. "That's when we make our separation; we run, run, run."
It was more like walk, walk, and walk for the first three quarters as Fremd's match-up zone stalled an Eagle attack that was averaging 68.3 points a game.
"In the half-court we did a real nice job defensively," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski, whose team trailed by 13 points early in the third quarter but used an 11-2 run to narrow the deficit to 4 points.
Senior Jim Mundt came off the bench to score 5 of his 7 points during the run, and junior Danny Bruno (team-high 9 points) added a nifty lay-in, while sophomore Chris Klimek (7 points, 6 rebounds) and senior Michael Hoffman (5 rebounds) helped Fremd to a 24-18 rebounding advantage after three quarters.
"Boy they came storming back," added Hinkle of the Vikings' run. "But I thought we took their best shot and we still had the lead."
Fremd (2-6) was coming off an impressive 39-32 victory over Hoffman Estates on Thursday, and the Vikings showed the same intensity for three quarters on Saturday but Moran and the Eagles were able to close the deal.
"They were giving us a little trouble in the beginning but we figured it out," said Moran of the Vikings' match-up zone.
Eric Schmidt (8 points) and Tim Moran (6 points) added to the Eagles' attack.