Huntley makes it a 10-0 start
There’s no secret, really, to the offense of Huntley’s girls basketball team.
It starts and ends with the Andrews sisters, Sam and Ali.
But since the game is played at both ends of the floor, what the Red Raiders needed against Cary-Grove Monday night was a stellar defensive effort on Trojans’ junior scoring machine Katie Barker.
And that’s exactly what Huntley got from senior Bethany Zornow in its 58-48 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win in Huntley, the Red Raiders’ 10th straight win without a loss.
Zornow held Barker to just 15 points — none in the first quarter — and limited her shot attempts to 13 as the Red Raiders handed the four-time defending Valley champs their second straight division loss.
“She did just a fantastic job on defense tonight,” said Huntley coach Steve Raethz of the 5-foot-9 Zornow. “Katie Barker is a fantastic player and (Zornow) did a great job of staying in front of her, and our kids did a nice job of plugging the gaps.”
Zornow just executed what she was told to do.
“I knew I had to keep (Barker’s) scoring under control and I was proud of how I was able to do that,” said Zornow, who had 4 assists and 5 rebounds. “I knew my job and I just followed through on what coach Raethz gave me to do. I love defense and I love being able to shut people down. I’d rather do defense than offense any day.”
And on this Huntley team, not much offense is needed from anyone else when the Andrews sisters have their games on, which they did again on Monday. Senior Sam Andrews scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while sophomore Ali Andrews, who sat out the final 10:12 of the first half with two fouls, had 23 points and 6 rebounds. The two hooked up with each other four times in the first quarter as the Raiders (10-0, 2-0) raced out to a 17-5 lead, much to the chagrin of Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert.
“We show up in the first quarter and we’ve got a game,” Saffert said. “For some reason we don’t show up in the first quarter. You have to show up for four quarters, especially when you’re not as skilled as the other team. Not that we can’t beat them, but you gotta show up for four quarters.”
Not only did the Trojans (6-4, 1-2) struggle to contain the Andrews sisters, they showed little patience offensively, making just 2 of 11 shots in the first quarter and 16 of 55 (29 percent) for the game.
“We need to stop settling for 3s,” said Saffert, whose team was 6-for-24 from beyond the arc.”We needed to put the ball on the floor and take it to them, especially when Ali got in foul trouble.”
After the first quarter, Cary-Grove outscored Huntley 43-41, but the damage was done. Trailing 26-15 at halftime, the Trojans, who had 10 turnovers in the first half but none in the second half, cut the lead to 7 twice in the third quarter, both times on baskets by senior Abby Glaysher, who scored all 12 of her points in the second half. Her basket with 4:06 left in the third made it a 36-29 game but the Andrews sisters scored the next 6 points to give their team a 42-29 lead with 1:36 left and the closest the Trojans would get the rest of the way was 9, 46-37, after 2 free throws from junior Candace Cunningham with 5:03 to play in the game.
“It was important for us to get off to a good start,” said Raethz, whose team had only 7 turnovers and made 18 of 43 from the field. “We were really cleaning up the boards. Cary-Grove is such a good team and so well-coached. We’re real pleased to come away with the win. I just can’t say enough about our effort tonight.”
It will take that effort and then some to make it an 11-0 start. Huntley travels to Chicago Friday night to take on Corry Irvin’s Whitney Young Dolphins in the ChiTown Showdown at Young. Young, which beat Huntley in the Class 4A third-place game downstate last season, opened its 2013-14 campaign on Saturday with a 54-40 win over defending 4A state runner-up Rolling Meadows in the Mac Irvin Diabetes Classic at Larkin.
“We know it’s going to be a really tough test for us but we want to go down there and compete and play hard,” Raethz said.
Raethz also doesn’t want his team to lose sight of the fact it has to play Saturday night against Prairie Ridge, which has emerged as an FVC Valley contender.
“We don’t want to overlook what we’ve got Saturday with Prairie Ridge,” he said. “We just want to continue to work hard and improve every day.”