Huntley upsets Cary-Grove
During his 12-year tenure as Huntley girls basketball coach, Steve Raethz has emphasized tough hard-nosed team defense.
That philosophy was certainly on display Saturday night.
Holding Cary-Grove’s high-octane offense to 14 field goals and no 3-pointers, Huntley staved off a fourth-quarter rally by the Trojans to post a 46-35 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win in Huntley.
“I was really pleased with our collective effort on defense,” said the veteran Huntley coach. “They have some good offensive weapons, but we played great team defense. It was a great team win against a great Cary-Grove team.”
The win put the FVC Valley race in a 3-way deadlock as Huntley moved into a tie for the lead with Cary-Grove and Dundee-Crown.
Huntley (11-6, 4-1) looked to be in good shape when Samantha Andrews canned 1-of-2 free throws with 4:24 left to give the Red Raiders a 8-point 32-24 lead.
But Paige Lincicum tried to rally the Trojans. The senior guard scored 5 points as the Trojans went on a 7-1 run to cut the Huntley deficit to 2, 33-31, with 3:10 left. That was as close as the Trojans (11-6, 5-1) would get.
Andrews canned a 3-pointer and scored on a putback as the Red Raiders seized control of the game with a 5-0 run and 7-point 38-31 lead with 2:12 left.
Huntley sealed the win by making 7-of-10 free throws in the final 1:22. Andrews made 4-of-4 from the line and Abbey Shaw connected on 3-of-4 from the charity stripe.
“I like the way we kept our composure when Cary-Grove made their run,” said Raethz. “We knew Cary would make a run, but we maintained our poise and made some big shots.”
Andrews paced Huntley with 17 points including a pair of 3-pointers.
“Cary-Grove is our number one rival and we always want to beat them,” said Andrews. “Coach had us prepared and we kept our composure at the end of the game. This was a big win.”
Shaw added 14 points as the duo combined for 31 of the Red Raiders’ 46 points.
“We played with full effort for the entire game,” said Shaw. “We were very prepared defensively. This was a great win.”
Cary-Grove, which was 14-of-45 from the field for 31 percent and 0-of-13 from 3-point range, was led by Lincicum with 18 points. Olivia Jakubicek scored 7 points with 10 rebounds.
“(Huntley) deserved to win,” said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert, whose team had a 16-game conference winning streak snapped. “We had our opportunities, but we didn’t match their intensity for the entire game.”