Defense propels Jacobs past Crystal Lake South
The Jacobs boys basketball team hasn't employed full-court pressure often this season, but the Golden Eagles used it Friday against visiting Crystal Lake South and converted turnovers into points early and often in a 75-43 victory.
The Golden Eagles forced 6 turnovers in the first quarter, helping them build a 12-0 lead through four minutes and a 21-5 cushion after one period.
"I looked up at the score and it was 10-0," said Jacobs guard Chrishawn Orange, who led all scorers with 24 points to go with 7 rebounds and 2 steals. "Let's keep putting it on them, putting it on them, putting it on them ... It was great defense on our part, getting hands up, getting deflections, getting in transition and scoring the basketball in transition."
Like last Saturday when the Golden Eagles held Waukegan to 23 points, they made even the most basic pass a challenge to complete.
"It's not so much just steals, it's deflections, too, tipped balls getting them out of their rhythm, not allowing them to compete easy passes, tipping balls out of bounds," Jacobs 6-foot-8 sophomore Cameron Krutwig said after an 11-point, 10-rebound, 4-assist, 3-block performance. "That's just frustrating when you can't make passes across the arc."
Crystal Lake South (11-6, 1-2), which was fresh off Tuesday's impressive nonconference victory over Jacobs holiday tournament champion Larkin, committed 11 of its 16 turnovers in the first half. The Gators made only 2 of 10 first-quarter shots while the Golden Eagles were sinking 7 of 13, including 3-pointers from Kenton Mack, Corey Boeckh and Matt Bindi. Jacobs shot 9 of 19 from beyond the arc overall.
"I'm disappointed in our guard play against that press because, really, it's not what Jacobs does a lot of," CL South coach Matt LePage said. "If we break it one or two times, they get out of it. Instead, they make it a huge part of that game. I thought we kind of gave them some possessions there. It wasn't their trap; it was us throwing the ball away."
The first-half onslaught was as balanced as it was thorough. Jacobs won the turnover battle 11-4, the rebounding battle 13-5 and six Golden Eagles scored at least 5 points before the intermission: Boeckh (9), Orange (8), Krutwig (6), Bindi (6), reserve guard Mike Canady (6) and Mack (5).
Jacobs' 75-point total was its second-highest this season. Its 43 points allowed? Its fifth-lowest total.
"It's a statement we're just putting out there," Orange said. "Put out a number, see what other teams think."
While the Golden Eagles were pleased with their 47-percent shooting performance (24 of 51), they were just as proud of holding the Gators to 36 percent (16 of 45).
"We talk about slamming teams down in the forties and the fifties," Krutwig said "That obviously comes with our pressure, too. We have size in there to wall up and make it tough to finish, and we have quick guards on the outside so they can't really shoot over us."
Jacobs has won 3 in a row by holding those opponents to an average of 35 points.
"I think that you can see that in our last two, three times on the floor that we're coming, we're coming," Jacobs coach Jim Roberts said. "We're getting back to that team we saw in the summer. We're getting back to that team we thought we were going to be coming into the year."