Jacobs breezes past Dundee-Crown with a 68-28 victory
These are the kind of games that make Ed Haugens lose sleep at night.
Yes, his Jacobs girls basketball team came into Tuesday night's District 300 rivalry game with Dundee-Crown 15-7 while the struggling Chargers were 2-19. And Jacobs, which was coming off a big win over Crystal Lake South, has a now even bigger rematch looming with Cary-Grove on Friday night.
So Haugens, understandably, was a bundle of nerves.
"Any team scares me," he said. "You have to respect them all."
Haugens' team didn't take long to put their coach's nerves to rest. Jacobs led 14-9 after one quarter and then scored 21 points in the second quarter while shutting D-C out en route to a 68-28 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win in Carpentersville.
The win was Jacobs' eighth straight in the series. The last time D-C beat the Golden Eagles was Jan. 4, 2005.
"The coaches reminded us we had a game ahead of us before Cary-Grove," said Jacobs senior Sam Vojtsek, who had 10 points in the Golden Eagles' balanced scoring attack. "We just didn't want any letdowns. We knew what we had to do and we just had to go out and do it."
Vojtsek scored 7 of her points in the telltale second quarter, a period that saw Dundee-Crown (2-20, 0-6) turn the ball over 8 times and miss all 12 of its field goal attempts.
"(Jacobs) put so much defensive pressure on us," said D-C coach Michelle Russell, whose team had 31 turnovers in the game. "We took a lot of shots and we had good shots, they just didn't fall. We counted 10 shots inside that we missed in that second quarter. It's disappointing when you work hard to get your shots and they don't fall."
Siera Dunner, a Dundee-Crown transfer, led Jacobs with 11 points while Maria Tamburrino and Hailey Cnota, along with Vojtsek, who had 4 steals, had 10 each. Keri Bultman added 8 points and 6 rebounds.
"I was actually happier with the second half than the first," said Haugens, who cleared his bench midway through the third quarter and didn't play any of his starters the rest of the way. "I thought we had a lot more energy in the second half. I'm happy for our kids tonight. We had balanced scoring and everyone got a chance to participate.
Tori Scarpelli led Dundee-Crown with 7 points.
"The pressure got to us a little bit tonight," said Russell. "But we did our best and these girls try their hardest. There's not much more I can ask."
BOX SCORE
Jacobs 68, Dundee-Crown 28
Jacobs - Vojtsek 3 2-4 10, Ritzke 2 0-0 6, Bultman 3 2-5 8, Hall 2 1-2 5, Tamburrino 4 2-5 10, K. Quitschau 3 0-2 6, Dunner 5 1-2 11, C. Quitschau 0 2-2 2, Mammoser 0 0-2 0, Cnota 4 0-0 10. Totals 26 10-24 68.
Dundee-Crown - Fasanella 0 0-0 0, Bartelt 2 0-0 6, Lococo 2 1-2 5, Summaria 0 0-0 0, Sullivan 1 0-0 2, Scarpelli 2 3-4 7, Mosher 0 0-0 0, Gantz 1 2-2 4, Jenson 2 0-0 4. Totals 10 6-9 28.
Jacobs 14 21 19 14 - 68
Dundee-Crown 9 0 14 5 - 28
3-point baskets: JAC: Vojtsek (2), Ritzke (2), Cnota (2), DC: Bartelt (2).
Fouled out: None.