Jacobs 48, Huntley 39

Jacobs senior Markie Rahn simply wasn't going to let the Golden Eagles lose.

Rahn, who scored 15 of the Golden Eagles' 16 points in the fourth quarter, tallied 22 of her game-high 28 points after intermission to lead Jacobs to a 48-39 win over Huntley in a Fox Valley Conference crossover girls basketball game in Huntley Friday night.

"We didn't change anything at halftime," said Rahn. "We just played better and executed. We played scared in the first half. My shot was just there tonight. It felt great."

Jacobs (8-7), which trailed 22-15 at halftime, outscored the Red Raiders (9-6) 33-17 during the final 16 minutes.

Trailing 9-7 after one quarter, Huntley grabbed control of the game in the second quarter.

Making 3 of 5 from beyond the arc in the quarter, Huntley outscored Jacobs 15-6 and led by 7 at the half.

With the score tied at 13, the Red Raiders drained 3 consecutive 3-pointers, 2 by Shannon Callahan and 1 by Katie Bergquist and led 22-13 late in the second quarter.

Jacobs gained a little momentum heading into halftime as Rahn scored a layup off a perfect pass from Stephanie Leddy to beat the buzzer to pull Jacobs within 7.

The Golden Eagles totally outplayed Huntley in the second half.

Upping the defensive intensity, the Golden Eagles scored the first 11 points of the second half.

Rahn scored 7 points including a 3-pointer and Leddy scored on a pair of layups as Jacobs turned a 7-point deficit into a 4-point 26-22 lead with 5:06 left in the quarter.

Huntley, which misfired on its first 7 shots of the quarter, didn't score a basket until Megan Martinez hit a layup with 2:02 remaining to cut the Jacobs lead to 30-28. That would be as close as Huntley would get.

Leading 32-28 after three quarters, Rahn made sure there wouldn't be any Huntley comeback. Scoring on a pair of 3s and hitting two mid-range jumpers, the Jacobs senior scored 10 consecutive points as the Golden Eagles started the fourth quarter on a 10-4 run. After a 15-footer by Rahn, Jacobs led 42-32 with 4:20 left in the game.

Jacobs, which made 10 of 15 shots in the second half for 60 percent, committed only 2 turnovers in the final 16 minutes.

"We didn't make any adjustments at halftime," said Jacobs coach Ed Haugens. "We just played with more energy. Our spacing was better and we executed offensively and defensively. Markie was on fire. She is our team leader. Now, we need to get scoring from other people."

Callahan led Huntley with 12 points on four 3-pointers. Daisy Jara scored 11 with 10 rebounds.

"We played a good first half, but we got totally outplayed and outhustled in the second half," said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. "It simply came down to Jacobs being more hungry than us in the second half. We didn't play with a sense of urgency.

They flat-out wanted it more than us and Markie Rahn was outstanding."

St. Charles North 55, South Elgin 36: Kelsey Smith dominated the first quarter Friday night.

Her St. Charles North teammates took care of the other three quarters as the North Stars cruised to a 55-36 Upstate Eight Conference victory over host South Elgin.

"I figured we just had to contain Kelsey Smith and not let her get a lot of touches," Storm coach Tim Prendergast said. "Right away, we couldn't guard her."

Smith, a 6-foot-4 junior center, scored North's first 6 points as the Storm (8-9, 1-4 UEC) opened with a man-to-man defense. Midway through the first quarter South Elgin switched to a 2-3 zone. The change didn't help much as Smith finished the quarter with 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting and 4 rebounds as North (11-4, 5-0) led 18-11.

"We knew that we needed to get it inside," North coach Katie Sauber said. "There definitely was a height advantage that we needed to make sure we played to."

Smith scored only 4 points the rest of the game, but that didn't matter.

Kiley Hackbarth hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter as North increased its lead at halftime to 29-15. South Elgin struggled to get anything going offensively in the quarter. The Storm went 1-for-15 from the field and turned the ball over 9 times. A Courtney Kumerow basket with 50 seconds left was the only Storm field goal of the quarter.

"I think we went through a 4- or 5-minute stretch were we missed layups and 10-footers. We have to make those shots," Prendergast said. "We dug ourselves a hole going into the second half."

The North Stars quickly put South Elgin away by scoring the first 6 points of the second half to open a 20-point lead, 35-15.

South Elgin, which shot 24 percent, got no closer than 16 points the rest of the way and trailed by as many as 28, 55-27, in the fourth quarter.

Smith added 9 rebounds to go with her 16 points despite sitting out the final 10 minutes. Hackbarth finished with 10 points. Anna Conrad had 7 points and 6 assists. Nika Sircher, Alex Messacar and Stephanie Horton each scored 6.

"One of the things we always talk about no matter if (the opponent) is play man or zone is we need to be patient with the ball," Sauber said. "We need to make sure we work that extra pass to get a better shot."

Kumerow led the Storm with 9 points and 13 rebounds. Dijon Smith added 6 points.

-- Brian Schaumburg