Jacobs tournament roundup

It seemed Barrington was looking up at Zion-Benton all night.

In height disadvantage. In rebounding. In "hops" around the basket, if you will.

But not in heart and not in smarts.

The Broncos slowed their offense to get better percentage looks and adjusted their defense to keep the ball away from inside powerhouse Lenzelle Smith. Subsequently, they were able to rally from 12 back for a 68-64 win in the championship pool of the Jacobs Holiday Classic in Algonquin.

Paced by the second-half shooting of Bryan Wegner (18 points), Greg Gerrard (14), James Stack (13) and Ben Bartz (12), and a swarming, switching, scrambling defensive effort from everybody who got into the game, the Broncos finally tied the score at 51-51 in the fourth quarter on Gerrard's free throws and went ahead 54-51 when Wegner calmly tossed home a 3 from the right wing.

After surrounding Smith (16 points) and frontcourt runningmate Owen Worthington (15) into a 5-of-17 shooting effort in the fourth quarter, the Broncos (7-6) relied on their free throw shooting (11 straight) down the stretch to pull away for the win. It was their fourth straight since a disheartening Mid-Suburban West loss at home to Palatine last Friday.

"Defensively, the key was keeping the ball out of (Smith's) hands. We played the drive gaps and helped out," said Wegner, who sent an alert to his teammates by not being timid about attacking the basket in the second half.

Now the Broncos will play St. Charles North at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for the tournament title.

"The Palatine game was a little bit of a wake-up call," said a gratified Bryan Tucker, Barrington's head coach. "I was real happy with our kids.

"We had to adjust to (Z-B's) athleticism and their strength (inside). We did a nice job taking that away in the second half."

St. Charles North 70, Bartlett 61: The St. Charles North boys basketball team is in a familiar position.

It just hopes for a different result.

The North Stars advanced Wednesday night to the championship game of the Jacobs Holiday Classic for the third consecutive season - and got a little revenge - by beating Bartlett, 70-61, in Algonquin.

"It's a big deal to us," North coach Tom Poulin said. "These guys want to prove that they can push the program ahead and take it the next step, not just getting to the championship, but coming through and getting a 'W' in the championship."

STC North (9-5) will play Barrington at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the title game. The North Stars lost to Jacobs in the championship game each of the last two seasons.

"We were .500 coming in (to the tournament) and we were better than a .500 ballclub," said North senior Beau Blakeley. "We wanted to show people that."

The North Stars, who lost to Bartlett by 14 points less than two weeks ago, started quickly against the Hawks, scoring the first six points. They never trailed and the game was never tied after 0-0. Blakeley's 3-pointer from the right corner with 4 seconds left in the first quarter gave North an 18-9 lead.

Bartlett (8-4), which plays Zion-Benton at 6 p.m. Saturday in the third-place game, cut the deficit to 5, 34-29, entering halftime and seemed to have some momentum. The Hawks cut it to 3, 36-33, with 6:25 left in the third quarter after a Luke Labedzki bucket.

That would be as close as the Hawks would get as North extended its lead with an 8-0 run and scored 16 of the next 19 points to take a 52-36 lead into the fourth quarter.

"We had no heart. We had no energy," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "We played selfish. St. Charles North was the exact opposite."

Bartlett scored 8 points in a minute to get within 6, 64-58, but the North Stars hit 6 of 8 free throws in the final 46 seconds.

"We wanted to see them again. We knew this matchup was possible," Blakeley said. "We wanted to prove that we're better than what we showed the first time."

Josh Mikes had 16 points, 10 in the second half, and 6 rebounds for North, which shot 52 percent (27 for 52). David Johnson finished with 14 points and Kyle Nelson added 9 points and 9 rebounds.

Larry Whitaker led the Hawks with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Labedzki had 14 points. Mike Banks added 10.

Marian Central 65, Jacobs 60: The effort and intensity was evident for the Jacobs boys basketball team. However, the Golden Eagles lost for the ninth time in 11 games this season.

Marian Central, which made 21 free throws compared to 3 for Jacobs, moved to 3-1 in the Jacobs Holiday Classic with a 65-60 win over the Golden Eagles Wednesday night.

"We played better than we did (Tuesday) night against Barrington," said Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle. "We played well in spurts and played better defense in the second half. You just need to look at the free throw stats to tell the story of the game. They made 21 and we made 3. In a two-possession game, that was the ballgame."

Both teams torched the nets in the first half combining for 76 points. Led by 16 points from Danny Noonan and 10 from Jake Everly, Marian Central (10-4) led 40-36 at halftime. Matt Schmidt scored 14 for the Golden Eagles.

"We really did a great job of executing our offense," said Marian Central coach Curtis Price. "We had good patience with the ball and took good shots. We didn't force the offense. We played much better than we did against Zion-Benton Tuesday."

The Hurricanes took control of the game to start the third quarter. Scoring the first 6 points of the third quarter on baskets by Ben Krol, Jacob Tonkin and CJ Price, the Canes extended their 4-point halftime lead to 10, 46-36, with 5:58 left in the third quarter.

Jacobs kept whittling away at the lead and finally got to within 2 of the Hurricanes at 62-60 after a 10-footer by Mike Peterson with 1:09 left in the game. But Jacobs couldn't get any closer as Everly made 3 free throws in the final minute to ice the win for the Hurricanes.

"Marian Central has a very nice ballclub," said Hinkle. "They do a lot of things well."

Noonan led the Canes with 23 points. Everly scored 17 and Krol tallied 11 points with 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

"We want the players to improve and the coaches to coach better every time we play," said Price. "I am satisfied we did that tonight."

Schmidt led Jacobs with 16 points while Nick Hofman scored 15 before fouling out with 11 seconds left. Peterson added 13 for the Golden Eagles.

Howard Schlossberg, Brian Schaumburg and Dave Hess contributed to this report