CL South takes FVC Valley battle from Cary-Grove
The long haul isn't quite over, but there's now a light at the end of the tunnel for Crystal Lake South's girls basketball team.
Using stifling defense and pinpoint free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter, the Gators turned away Cary-Grove 66-53 Saturday night at Gator Alley, and with the win took over sole possession of first place in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division.
Wins against Jacobs and Woodstock next week will give South (21-4, 7-1) the Valley title outright.
"One game at a time," said Gators' coach Kyle McCaughn, whose team's only league loss is to Jacobs. "It might sound cliché, but really, it's one game at a time."
Saturday night it was more like one point at a time. South dominated pretty much the entire game, taking a 15-10 lead after one quarter and then, after stretching the advantage to 30-16 midway through the second, the Gators held off a Cary-Grove spurt and led 34-28 at halftime.
The Trojans (19-6, 6-2) would never get closer in the second half and the Gators made sure of it by nailing 19 of 24 from the free throw line in a fourth quarter that saw a total of 38 free throw attempts.
"We knew when it got to the end it would turn into a fouling thing; it always does with us and Cary-Grove," said South senior Caitlin Mize, who scored a team-high 16 points and hit 10 of 10 from the line in the final period to go along with 12 rebounds. "You just have to have that confidence to go up there and put it in."
Katie Burton added 15 points, Michelle Gaede 13, Jessica Taldone 8, Molly Benoit 7 and Jenny Hanrahan 6 for the balanced Gators in a game that saw the teams combine for 68 free throw attempts -34 each.
"It just shows what our kids are made of," said McCaughn. "We knew Cary would try to make a run at us but we were able to stay focused."
Sophomore Claire Jakubicek led Cary-Grove with 23 points and 9 rebounds. Tino Bear added 10 points for the Trojans, Tori Sandstrom 9 and Meg Straumann 8, but Cary-Grove was able to shoot just 13 of 53 from the field.
"I didn't feel like they were stopping us from driving all night, we just didn't make the shots," said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert. "I told them at halftime that we had 25 shots within 10 feet and we made seven. It's tough when you're going in there against those trees. But it's a lesson that will help us down the road."