Cary-Grove falls short against Zion-Benton
It was an uphill struggle for the Cary-Grove girls basketball team Wednesday night against Zion-Benton in the semifinals of the Mundelein Holiday Classic Tournament.
Despite playing catch-up for the entire game, the Trojans kept battling back as they cut the Zee-Bees’ lead to 52-50 on an inside basket by sophomore Olivia Jakubicek with 11 seconds to play.
But Zion-Benton (11-2) held on for a 54-52 victory as senior guard Juanita Robinson hit 2 clutch free throws with 7.6 seconds to play to seal the victory. Cary-Grove (13-2) got a layup from Paige Lincicum with one second left to account for the final score.
The Trojans play Hoffman Estates for third place today at 6:30 p.m. before Libertyville and Zion-Benton play for the title at 8 p.m.
The Zee-Bees set the fast-paced tone in the first half as they went on an early 9-point run for a 9-2 lead before leading 16-13 after one quarter and 28-21 at halftime. Cary-Grove could not establish its inside game against Zion-Benton forward Morgan Garrett.
Zion-Benton led 38-30 late in the third quarter before a basket in the lane by Cary-Grove’s Joslyn Nicholson made the score 38-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
Then Nicholson banked home a 3-pointer to open the final quarter before senior teammate Claire Jakubicek added 2 free throws to cut the gap to 38-37 with 7:14 to play.
But the Zee-Bees answered that run with two inside hoops by Garrett and 2 free throws by Octavia Crump to boost the lead back to 44-37 with 5:42 to play.
An outside basket by Claire Jakubicek was followed by a deep 3-pointer by teammate Megan Straumann (4 3-pointers) and the Trojans only trailed 44-42 with 4:20 to play.
Crump proved to be a huge difference-maker in the game as her inside hoop made the score 46-42 only to see Straumann hit another high-arching trey to cut the gap to 46-45 with 2:52 to play.
Then a driving basket by Robinson (17 points) gave Zion-Benton a 48-45 edge before 2 free throws by teammate Helena Rodriguez made the score 50-45 with 57 seconds to go.
“Crump and Robinson were just huge and they are just really good basketball players when they are focused,” said Zion-Benton coach Tanya Johnson, who has 601 career wins. “Libertyville’s kids play well together, obviously we have to play well defensively, and we have to have less unforced turnovers than we did against them the first game.”
Yet another late 3-pointer by Straumann off of a save by Claire Jakubicek cut Zion’s lead 50-48 with 43 seconds left.
But then Crump grabbed a huge offensive rebound and scored on a missed free throw by Robinson with 26 seconds to go for a 52-48 Zee-Bees lead as Zion would barely hold on down the stretch.
“They never give up and when Meg started hitting those 3s and we got something going inside we cut it to 1 a couple of times,” said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert. “We had a couple of wide-open looks that we missed, and we had our chances in the end.”
Crump scored a game-high 20 points while Claire Jakubicek led the Trojans with 17. Straumann hit double figures with 14 points while Olivia Jakubicek added 8 points.
“It was definitely disappointing and we wanted to go to the championship, but I thought we played well,” said Claire Jakubicek. “We needed to rebound better and Zion-Benton’s post’s were tough so they definitely made it tough on us.”