Jacobs bounces back with win

The Jacobs boys basketball team showed no lingering effects from its first Fox Valley Conference Valley Division loss last Saturday in cruising to a 59-33 win at Cary-Grove on Wednesday.

"Like Mark Twain said, reports of our demise have been greatly exaggerated," Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said. "We got a little sick of people coming around and feeling sorry for us this week. I think the kids were very anxious to get going."

As in the first meeting between the division rivals on Jan. 21, a 53-46 Jacobs win, Cary-Grove (12-11, 1-5) attempted to slow the pace from the start. The plan worked for almost eight minutes until Jacobs senior Tim Moran stole an inbounds pass with 2 seconds left in the period, turned, fired and sank a 3-pointer from 60 feet away that give Jacobs a 9-4 lead after a quarter.

Cary-Grove tied the game at 9-9 with an inside layup by junior Chad McCarron and a 3-pointer from senior guard Chris Swenson. But Jacobs (19-3, 5-1) countered with a 10-0 run, fueled by 4 baskets by Conrad Krutwig, who led all scorers with 19 points.

Krutwig capped the surge by stealing a pass on the perimeter and taking it the distance for a breakaway dunk that gave the Golden Eagles a 19-9 lead with 3:29 left in the second quarter.

"We wanted to get that loss off our minds and get back to winning conference games in the second half (of the conference season)," Krutwig said. "We knew they were going to slow the game down. We just had to play disciplined defense, hit the boards, limit them to one shot and run the break."

The Trojans trailed 24-15 at halftime and were still within 36-26 with a minute left in the third quarter, however, Jacobs spurted for an 8-0 run on 2 free throws from sophomore Mike Peterson (10 points), a steal on the press for a breakaway layup by junior Mike Barch (9 points), another inside bucket from Krutwig and a long jump shot by junior Sean Meyer (6 points).

"We couldn't stop them," Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schuetzle said. "They shot 76 percent (19 of 25) on twos and 63 percent on threes (7 of 11). We can't make a shot and they're just throwing everything in. They're just physically superior to us."

Cary-Grove made 12 of 26 shots (46 percent), including 2 of 8 from 3-point range.