Huntley comes back to top South Elgin
With Huntley leading South Elgin 21-4, it looked like a blowout win for the Red Raiders. Then the Storm came to life, outscoring the Red Raiders 30-6 during a 10-minute stretch. But back came the Red Raiders, posting a 15-0 run of their own to regain the lead.
When the dust settled, Huntley held on for a 52-46 victory in Huntley. The game was part of the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving tournament and helped get things off to a wild start.
Huntley “won” the first and fourth quarters, 35-15, while South Elgin dominated the middle two periods with a 31-17 advantage.
Kayla Barreto and Sam Andrews led a balanced Huntley attack with 12 points apiece. Ali Andrews added 11 points and Bethany Zornow had 9 for Huntley (2-0). The Andrews sisters had 10 rebounds apiece.
Nadia Yang scored 16 points and Savanah Uveges added 13 for South Elgin.
South Elgin's run started shortly after Ali Andrews picked up her second foul. Being able to penetrate and kick out, the Storm sank 5 consecutive shots, including 4 3-pointers to get within 25-20 by halftime.
The storm continued in the second half after Andrews returned. South Elgin outscored the hosts 15-6 in the third quarter. When Kennede Miller scored to open the fourth quarter, the Storm had its biggest lead at 37-31.
But just as quickly as they lost it, the Red Raiders regained their equilibrium, scoring the next 15 points. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Barreto and Zornow were the keys, with the latter shot putting Huntley ahead to stay.
“I give big credit to our kids for the comeback in the second half,” said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. “Kayla sparked the comeback with that 3-pointer from the wing.”
Barreto's offense was a pleasant surprise for the Raiders.
“I wasn't really a threat last year,” she said. “But since last year, with our losing two players, I knew I had to step it up, that my role had to change. I knew I had to step up and knock that one down.”
The torrid 3-point shooting that had fueled the Storm's comeback suddenly deserted it in the final quarter.
“With about six minutes left in the game, we had two or three missed shots that would have pushed our lead to six or seven,” said South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast. “If we had made those shots, we could have gone into a delay and I feel we would have won the game. But we didn't make the shots and conversely, they came back and knocked down two or three 3-pointers. They got rattled a little bit, but they didn't get rattled enough to just go away.”