Huntley, Miller shoot down Zion-Benton
Huntley junior Troy Miller's shooting touch had been missing for three games prior to Monday afternoon's second round of pool play in the Jacobs Holiday Classic boys basketball tournament.
But Miller regained it and the last of seven 3-pointers he made with four seconds left gave the Red Raiders (8-1) a dramatic 55-53 comeback victory over Zion-Benton.
"I didn't ask but he probably took about a thousand shots in the gym on our day off (Sunday)," said Huntley coach Marty Manning after Miller accounted for all of his game-high 21 points behind the 19-foot-9 stripe.
"I kind of got back on track today," said Miller, who worked with his dad Tom to recapture his form. "I knew it was on line. I didn't know if it was definitely going in but it looked pretty good."
And that has Red Raiders looking good to make Wednesday's semifinals as the only 2-0 team in Pool III. They can seal that spot with a win at 9 a.m. today against Hope Academy.
Justin Frederick scored 13 points for Huntley and Dylan Neukirch added 9 points. Tyler Brunschon had just 2 points going into the fourth quarter but hit a pair of 3s to aid the rally from a 9-point deficit.
Manning wasn't too proud to scrap his traditional man-to-man defense after a quarter for a 2-3 zone against Zion-Benton (7-3) and its powerful inside trio of 6-foot-8 Carlyss Jackson (16 points), 6-5 Owen Worthington (13 points) and 6-4 Milik Yarbrough (12 points).
Manning, whose man-to-man roots were planted as the point guard on Hoffman Estates' 1996 Elite Eight team, said the last time Huntley played zone was last year.
"I didn't think we were deep enough physically to play them man-to-man so it was something we had to do," Manning said with a smile. "Tony (assistant coach Jones) makes me (practice it) because he's a 2-3 zone guy."
Boys basketball
Rockford Jefferson 82, Burlington Central 80: Despite 25 points each from Ray Hunnicutt and Sam Klein, Burlington Central lost a tough triple overtime decision to Jefferson in the opening round of the Chuck Dayton Tournament in DeKalb. "We battled the whole game and we hit shots when we needed to to stay in it," said BC coach Brett Porto. "It was a tough game but we played hard the whole way through." Jared Moxness added 8 points for the Rockets (4-4).
CL Central 54, Cary-Grove 40: Matt Aulert had 12 points and Jon Guay added 10 for the Trojans (4-6) in this loss at the Jacobs Holiday Classic. Nick Richter added 9 points for Cary-Grove.
CL South 42, Prairie Ridge 22: The Gators led 23-10 at halftime and never looked back in winning this Jacobs Holiday Classic game. Ethan Breitenstein had 9 points and Ryan Price scored 8 to lead CL South (7-3).
Girls basketball
Downers North 75, Elgin 28: Alex Bell and Briana Hamilton had 8 points each to lead Elgin (0-12) in the opening round of the Wheaton North tournament.
Huntley 50, Conant 49: Carly Goede's last-second shot lifted Huntley (9-5) to a win at the Mundelein tournament. Goede led the Red Raiders with 16 points, and Kadie Lowery added 15.
Elk Grove 46, Jacobs 13: Nicky Chapa and Tori Tamburrino each scored 3 points to lead Jacobs (0-11) at the Wheaton North tournament.
John Radtke contributed to this report.