Golden Eagle Classic at Jacobs
Both the Jacobs and Bartlett boys basketball teams have star players that they can rely on in critical situations.
Fortunately for the Golden Eagles, Conrad Krutwig and John Moran made one more key play than Bartlett's stars Thursday night in the final pool-play game of the Jacobs Golden Eagle Classic.
Krutwig and Moran combined to score all of the Golden Eagles' points in the fourth quarter as Jacobs erased a 5-point deficit and advance to the championship bracket with a 59-56 victory over the Hawks.
"Big players step up at the right time," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said.
Jacobs (10-1) plays Cary-Grove at 7:30 p.m. today in a semifinal. Bartlett (8-4) faces Elk Grove at 4:30 p.m. in the second-place bracket.
Neither team had a lead of more than 5 points the entire game -- Jacobs 35-30 early in the third and Bartlett twice in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks led 43-41 heading into the fourth quarter. Marc Little's basket in the lane with 4:54 remaining in the game gave Bartlett a 52-47 lead. Moran then hit a fall-away jumper and Krutwig's basket off the glass from a tough angle cut the Hawks' lead to 52-51 with 4 minutes left. Moran gave the Golden Eagles the lead, 53-52, off a well-designed inbounds play with 3:10 left. Bartlett's Cory Hrynyk answered as the lead changed again. Moran converted an easy layup before Little, who scored 8 of his team-high 18 points in the fourth, hit two free throws to again give Bartlett the lead, 56-55.
"(Little) was a handful. He made that team go," Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said of the Hawks' 5-10 junior guard who was making his first start of the season. "We had no answer for him."
Krutwig grabbed an offensive rebound, one of four in the quarter and 8 in the game, and scored with 2:10 left as Jacobs took a 57-56 lead. The game got a little sloppy as both teams turned the ball over or missed easy shots until the Golden Eagles wasted almost 50 seconds passing the ball around. Moran, who finished with 7 assists eventually found Krutwig for an easy layup and a 59-56 lead with 18 seconds remaining.
Bartlett was unable to run a play and the referees could not here Wolfsmith trying to call timeout so Little had to force up a 3-point attempt from 5 feet behind the line that missed. Moran rebounded the ball and throw down the court to run off the rest of the time.
"We were definitely looking for a good game. The first two games in the tournament we won by more than 20," Krutwig said. "We really knew we were going to get a basketball game today."
Krutwig scored a game-high 24 points, 12 in the fourth quarter. The junior center also grabbed 11 rebounds. Moran, who said he might have a fracture on the pinkie finger on his right hand, finished with 19 points, on 9 of 28 shooting, and 7 assists.
"I wasn't having the best night shooting-wise, obviously," Moran said. "I wasn't planning on shooting 28 times. I don't think I've ever shot that many times before."
Kamil Janton had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Hawks. Hrynyk added 10 points.
C-G 59, Elk Grove 56: Paul Tometich has hit some game-winning free throws in his career at Cary-Grove.
None have come after being fouled while shooting a 3-pointer in a tied overtime game, though. But it really didn't matter much as Paul Tometich sank all 3 foul shots with 1.7 seconds left to give the Trojans a 59-56 overtime victory over Elk Grove in the Golden Eagle Class hosted by Jacobs.
"That was big," said Paul Tometich, who led all scorers with 24 points. "As an offensive team it seems like a lot less when you're down by 2 then when you're down by 3."
The victory propels Cary-Grove (8-3) to a perfect 3-0 in pool play and allows the Trojans to secure no worse than fourth place - which is where they finished last year's tournament. Elk Grove, which entered the tournament 0-10, found its stride winning against Barrington and Johnsburg before narrowly falling to Cary-Grove.
The senior scored his free throws after Kevin Mcdonald had tied the game at 55 on an offensive putback with 14 seconds left.
The Trojans also had some trouble with the offensive glass as overtime began. Paul Tometich scored first, but Joe Baxter got an offensive putback to tie the game at 51.
Dan Bartz and Mark Tometich (9 points) each scored, but baskets from Hubly and McDonald tied the game at 55 with 14 seconds left.
"We went to the basket hard to earn the baskets," Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman said.
The Grenadiers (2-11) were trailing 47-41 with 2:13 remaining in the fourth quarter. Elk Grove rallied behind 4 points from McDonald (18 points) and a 3-pointer from Billy Hubly (13 points). Paul Tometich split a pair of free throws with 1:20 left to score Cary-Grove's lone point in the final 2 minutes, 13 seconds putting the Trojans up 49-44.
Hubly connected on a 3-pointer on the Grenadiers next trip down the floor making it a 49-47 game. McDonald scored the final points in regulation when he drove the lane for a layup with 36 seconds left in regulation.
"We've been working hard and in that comeback we showed a lot of effort," Hubly said.
Cary-Grove had 2 attempts after that, but Paul Tometich missed a jumper with 4 seconds left and Pete Pellizari could not get the offensive putback to fall forcing overtime.
"We wanted to take a sh1ot inside of 7 seconds," Trojans' coach Ralph Schuetzle said. "We wanted to take a good shot not just any shot. We had a hard time taking away (McDonald's) penetration."
Hubly nailed a pair of 3-pointer in the fourth quarter to help the Grenadiers comeback from a 39-31 halftime deficit. Chris Jaquier finished with 13 points and 5 blocks for the Trojans.
-- Matt Stacionis
Johnsburg 54, Barrington 49: Barrington was defeated by Johnsburg during tournament action Thursday morning at Jacobs.
Mack Darrow scored a team-high 14 points for the Broncos, while Peter Leonard and Sam Ojuri each scored nine.
Johnsburg was led by C.J. Fiedorowicz, scoring 15 points. Michael Dombrowski scored 13 points.
Woodstock 65, Prairie Ridge 59: Bryan Bradshaw and Bryan McGinn led Prairie Ridge with 15 points apiece, though it wasn't enough for victory. Mike Ungari contributed 8 points.
Ben Wetherbee led Woodstock with a 15-point effort, while Nate Burns added 11 points for the Blue Streaks.
SCN 61, Marian Central 46: There's nothing like a winning streak to make everything a little brighter.
After a 2-7 start, St. Charles North's boys basketball team recorded its fourth consecutive win in seven days with a convincing 61-46 victory over Marian Central Catholic (2-12) in the third round of the Jacobs Holiday Tournament in Algonquin.
Perhaps more importantly, the North Stars (6-7) advanced to Saturday's tournament semifinals for the first time in school history after sweeping pool play.
"It's a great accomplishment for us," said junior guard/forward Jonathon DeMoss, who led the North Stars with 14 points and 10 rebounds against Marian Central Catholic and has scored 61 points in three tourney contests.
"I remember my freshman year when we were 0-3 in pool play and I think we were the same last year. We're not satisfied yet - we want to win it."
After a fast-paced first quarter that saw the North Stars grab a 19-17 lead, they closed out the second quarter with a 9-0 run to up their halftime advantage to 11 at 35-24.
Five of those points were scored in the final 10 seconds of the half - a Jake Juriga putback followed by a steal and 3-point play from Nic Higgins.
"Not to take anything away from Marian but we felt like we were letting them hang around because our intensity and our energy on the defensive end was nonexistent," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin.
"We went with a little bit of pressure and decided to double the ball. We went to it to kind of force ourselves to turn up the energy."
The momentum spilled over into the third quarter, as the North Stars completed their 26-1 surge with a 17-1 run during the first 5 minutes of the period. St. Charles North's largest lead was 27 at 52-27 late in the third quarter.
While outscoring the Hurricanes 35-18 over the middle two quarters, the North Stars also forced 13 turnovers during that span.
"At halftime, we felt the difference would be how well we played defense and how much spirit we'd have on the defensive end," said Poulin. "You can always play defense - you don't have an off-day unless you choose to.
"When we decided to start playing defense, I think that changed the game."
The North Stars also controlled the boards, outrebounding Marian 48-24 - including a 17-4 edge on the glass in the second quarter.
"We felt like we could win the battle of the boards even with our small lineup," added Poulin. "I figured if we could put a body on them we could secure the rebound and then go with it."
Nick Neari, Zach Hirsch and Mike Kastel contributed 9 points each, while Tim Janeway added 6.
Chris Casey paced the Hurricanes with 13 points.
-- Craig Brueske
Mundelein 76, Wauconda 56: Ben Brust was in the spotlight of this Mundelein victory over Wauconda during tournament play at Jacobs. Brust scored a game-high 26 points, including five 3-pointers. Kevin Blackowicz scored 15 points, while Navjot Singh scored 10 points.
Bryce Larman led Wauconda with 19 points, and Eric Grozavescu added 15 points.
St. Edward 72, Lindblom 67: Josh Dixs canned five 3-pointers and scored 24 points to lead the Green Wave (5-7) to this win over Chicago Lindblom.
St. Edward, which plays Johnsburg at 1:30 p.m. today, was down 30-23 at ahalftime after scoring just 3 points in the second quarter, but roared back to take a 48-38 lead by the end of the third quarter.
"It was a good win for us against a team we should beat," said St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek. "We played really well against Bartlett (Wednesday) so I wasn't sure what to expect today."
Brett Manning scored 15 points for St. Edward while Riley Coleman and Steve Martin added 12 each.
"We made a great run in the third quarter," Chuipek said. "Josh got hot and our starting five was very balanced."
CL South 42, CL Central 41: Eric Wilde found his shooting touch from beyond the arc just in the nick of time.
Making only 1-of-8 from 3-point range through 3 quarters, Wilde connected on 3 key 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to lead Crystal Lake South to a 42-41 come from behind victory over cross-town rival Crystal Lake Central in a third round game of the Jacobs Golden Eagle Classic.
With the win, South (6-4), Central and Mundelein ended pool play 2-1. The Gators advance to the championship bracket because they had the best free throw shooting percentage among at 69.5 percent.
South plays St. Charles North in the semifinals today at 6 p.m.
The Gators, who trailed most of the game Thursday, found themselves down 36-28 after a 10-footer by Carson Sterchi with 5:42 left in the contest.
Wilde came to the rescue with a pair of 3s to slice the deficit to 36-34 with 4:08 left.
The Gators stayed within striking distance until Wilde buried a long 3-pointer from deep in the left corner to give the Gators the lead for good at 41-40 with 1:22 left.
Wilde paced South with 14 points, including four 3-pointers.
"I have been in a bad shooting slump lately," said Wilde. "It was nice to start feeling it when we needed it in the fourth quarter. I made all those shots within the offense."
Zack Carpenter added 12 for the winners.
"It seemed like they were up 6 or 7 most of the game, but our kids kept fighting," said South coach Dan DeBruycker. "We did a great job of adjusting our defense in the second half and Eric got hot at the right time."
Sterchi paced the Tigers with 13 points.
-- Dave Hess
Compiled by Jaci Corn