Defense lets Jacobs down in 1st loss

Jacobs girls basketball coach Ed Haugens was pleased with his team's effort, but he was not overjoyed with the Golden Eagles' play on the defensive end of the floor.

The result was Johnsburg defeating the host Golden Eagles 51-46 in a Fox Valley Conference crossover game at Jacobs Tuesday night.

"The girls played hard, but our defensive effort was unacceptable," said Haugens. "Johnsburg has a good offensive team and we had to step it up defensively and we didn't. Our defensive rebounding wasn't good. We gave them way too many second shots. We also didn't do a good job of locating their shooters. We gave their good shooters too many good shots."

The Golden Eagles (5-1) certainly had trouble finding Johnsburg junior sharpshooter Melissa Dixon. Connecting on 4-of-6 from 3-point

Range, Dixon led the Skyhawks (4-2) with 23 points. Danielle Slivka added 14 for the winners.

Jacobs seized the momentum going into the halftime locker room when Maria Tamburrino canned a long 3-pointer to beat the buzzer to pull Jacobs within a point of the Skyhawks at 27-26 after 16 minutes of play.

Johnsburg won the game in the third quarter.

Jacobs started fast in the third quarter when Tamburrino buried another 3-pointer to give the Golden Eagles a 29-27 lead with only 48 seconds elapsed. But the next 4 minutes proved fatal for Jacobs. Johnsburg outscored Jacobs 13-1 and turned a 1-point deficit into a 10-point 40-30 advantage. Dixon scored 7 points including a 3-pointer and Slivka tallied 5 points during the pivotal run as the Skyhawks took control of the game.

But, Jacobs refused to quit and got to within 3 of Johnsburg, 48-45, on a 3-pointer by Hailey Cnota with 2:06 left.

But Megan Lopez provided the dagger for Jacobs when the Skyhawk senior guard nailed a 3-pointer from deep in the left corner to give Johnsburg A 51-45 lead with 1:54 left.

"Megan doesn't shoot much, but she is a good shooter," said Johnsburg coach Mike Toussaint. "We are a veteran team so I wish we would have made better decisions in the fourth quarter. Our shot selection wasn't very good. But, this is a quality road win against a good Jacobs team."

Cnota led Jacobs with 19 points which included three 3-pointers while Tamburrino added 13 with a pair of 3s.