Cary-Grove to play for Mundelein title

Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert was in the giving mood to the members his girls basketball team Wednesday night at the Mundelein Lady Mustangs Holiday Classic. As each player came out of the locker room, Saffert handed them a small Christmas candy cane full of sweets.

It was rather fitting for Saffert to be handing out gifts after the Trojans gave their coach a nice gift in the semifinal contest with Prairie Ridge. Led by junior Claire Jakubicek's 21-point, 11-rebound effort, Cary-Grove remained unbeaten at 15-0 by dropping the Wolves 61-47. "I figured after the girls gave me the gift of winning the game, that this was the least I could do," Saffert said. "Tonight was a total team effort for us and Claire really stepped up and played well."

Cary-Grove will face Libertyville, a 49-39 winner over Rockford Auburn, in the 8 p.m. tournament title game Saturday. Prairie Ridge will place for third place at 6:30 p.m. against Rockford Auburn.

The Trojans broke open a tight game in the third quarter thanks to 9 points from Jakubicek. A run of 15 straight by Cary-Grove blew the game open and saw the lead move out to 49-26 late in the third quarter.

"We came out kind of slow in the first half," Jakubicek said. "Coach told us to get more aggressive and go to the basket and we did that much better in the second half."

Jakubicek scored 6 straight points for the Trojans then Liz Bart (10 points) drained a long 3-pointer to extend the run. After a timeout by Prairie Ridge (6-7), the run continued.

"The girls had to learn and keep learning that when you get a team down you have to keep them down," Saffert said. "We were so-so in the first half, but in the second half, particularly in the third quarter, I thought we picked it up and played our game."

Cary-Grove was also playing its third straight game without injured junior leading scorer Meg Straumann.

"I think we are all adapting (to not having Meg)," Jakubicek said. "Everyone has to pick their game up."

Defensively, Cary-Grove was tough on the Wolves forcing 27 turnovers. Prairie Ridge didn't go away quietly as they cut into the Cary-Grove lead in the fourth quarter but could get no closer than the final tally.

Emily Bruksch led the Wolves with 17 points. Taylor Smerecky also was in double figures for Prairie Ridge with 12 points. Christina Bear chipped in with 13 points for Cary-Grove.