Jacobs 59, Cary-Grove 54
Jacobs boys basketball coach Jim Hinkle could finally breathe a little easier.
The Golden Eagles, who led by 11 points late in the third quarter, fought off a valiant rally by Cary-Grove and scored the final 6 points of the game to pull off a 59-54 victory over the Trojans in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division opener for both teams in Algonquin Friday night.
"I think we had a 9 and an 11-point lead and could have extended the lead in both instances, but Cary-Grove wouldn't let us," said Hinkle. "They just wouldn't go away. They are a good basketball team. We made plays when we had to at the end of the game. This was a very good high school basketball game."
Jacobs (15-1, 1-0) , which led 10-2 early in the first quarter, looked to be in good shape when Tim Moran canned a 5-footer in the lane to give the Golden Eagles a 43-32 lead with 2:52 left in the third quarter.
The determined Trojans wouldn't give in.
Cary-Grove (9-9, 0-1) whittled away at the Golden Eagle lead and eventually took the lead 54-53 when Ben Jacquier hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:41 remaining.
Those would be the last points the Trojans would score.
The Golden Eagles took the lead for good 55-54 when Conrad Krutwig scored on a layup off a textbook bounce pass from John Moran with 1:19 left.
Two free throws from John Moran and a layup basket by Zack Peterson sealed the win for the Golden Eagles, ranked 10th in the state in Class 4A.
"We just made some clutch shots at the end and stepped up the defense in the second half," said John Moran. "It was a battle the whole night. We kept our composure and beat a very good Cary-Grove team."
John Moran paced the winners with 20 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.
Krutwig added 17 points with 11 rebounds and Peterson tallied 11.
Paul Tometich led Cary-Grove with 19, 8 in the fourth quarter while Mark Tometich and Dan Bartz added 9 apiece.
"We gave ourselves a chance to win," said Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schueltze. "That's all you can ask from a team. We had a couple of tough calls at the end and we made a couple of key mistakes. Our goal coming into the game was to hold them under 50. At halftime, we thought we could win if we held them under 55. We did a good job of staying patient and playing at our pace. The kids were scrapping the whole game."