Jacobs gets the best of Barrington
Jacobs may want to consider going with a ‘70s retro theme for Saturday night boys basketball games.
Retiring head coach Jim Hinkle showed he still has some slick moves as he danced all the way around his bench and back to his original sideline spot to express his displeasure with a third-quarter charging call on one of his players in the Golden Eagles’ nonconference game with visiting Barrington.
“Saturday Night Fever,” the 70-year-old Hinkle said with a laugh of the classic 1977 movie.
And the Golden Eagles’ red-hot shooting earned them a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings as they hit Hinkle’s age on the scoreboard in a victory for the first time this year with a 77-67 decision at the Eagles Nest in Algonquin.
“We feel Fridays are more of a wake-up call,” said senior Will Schwerdtmann, who scored 15 of his 20 points and hit all three of his 3-pointers before halftime as Jacobs rebounded from a 2-point loss to Grayslake North. “We haven’t been playing well on Fridays, but on Saturdays we have a short-term memory. It’s just the second chance you get right away.”
Jacobs (2-5) picked up its first win last Saturday with a sizzling second half at Cary-Grove. This time it extended a 38-30 halftime lead to 60-46 with 6:55 left and answered every Barrington (5-5) surge within striking distance.
And 6-foot-4 senior Lake Ojo provided a boost off the bench after he was late to Saturday morning’s practice because his car battery died. Ojo had 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting and sophomore Chrishawn Orange (14 points, 5 rebounds) was 4-for-5 from the field as Jacobs finished at 61.9 percent (26-for-42).
“We talked on defense very well,” Schwerdtmann said. “Our defense led to some easy transition points and that’s where I think we got them.”
Three consecutive layups to start the second quarter by Orange, Ojo and Julian Lee gave Jacobs a 25-19 lead it never lost. Barrington missed all 8 of its first-half attempts behind the arc and Brad Zaumseil didn’t score the first of his game-high 23 points until his driving 3-point play 3:56 before halftime cut the deficit to 30-28.
“They hit some contested shots and in the first half offensively we just looked like were in kind of a fog,” said Barrington coach Bryan Tucker after his team shot 40.4 percent (23-for-57) and 3-for-19 on 3s. “I didn’t feel we moved the ball, or off the ball, like we normally do.”
Zaumseil scored 15 points in the final 6:18 and Barrington got within 65-59 when Raymond Tolentino (10 points) found junior Zach Bart (19 points) for a layup with 3:26 left. But Orange found reserve guard Patrick Nerja for a right-corner 3 just 18 seconds later and Jacobs made 9-of-14 free throws the last 2:09 to complete another successful Saturday night.
“This is the team that has been working out with us all year and one of our reasons of frustration all season is that team hasn’t shown up,” Hinkle said of his team which has lost a pair of 2-point games and another by 7 points. “They showed up tonight.
“We’re just trying to get all the pieces together and it’s taken awhile to develop some chemistry.
“I thought that chemistry showed up last weekend at Cary-Grove. We’ve been using so many guys but now we’re starting to get a feel for one another.”