Huntley’s hot fourth quarter too much for Cary-Grove
There are times when coaches explain to their players precisely what they need to do at a critical point and they execute just what they were told.
Huntley experienced one of those scenarios Friday night against Cary-Grove.
Huntley coach Collin Kalamatas expressed how important it was to start the fourth quarter with defensive stops and the Red Raiders responded by holding the Trojans scoreless in five of six possessions.
Those stops helped Huntley build enough of a cushion to come away with a 45-37 victory in their Fox Valley Conference boys basketball game.
“We challenged our guys, at that moment, with getting consecutive stops,” Kalamatas said. “We scored on our first possession, we got a lead and five stops in six possessions, which is the kind of execution we were looking for on the defensive end. It came with effort, some grit from our guys.”
Guard Omare Segarra rebounded his own miss and scored on a putback to start the quarter, giving the Raiders (13-9, 6-4 FVC) a 31-30 lead, which they never relinquished.
Segarra got a steal and fed Ethan Blackmore for a fast-break layup on the next possession. The tight defense allowed Huntley to build a 40-32 lead.
“The key to that was we stuck together and it starts on the defensive end always,” Blackmore said. “Our defense really stepped up and never let down.”
Kalamatas, who used man-to-man the whole game, lauded Blackmore for his defensive work on C-G’s Jake Hornok, an 11.7-points a game scorer, who finished with five points and did not have a field goal.
“We were locked in on not allowing Hornok to attack the rim and facilitate,” Kalamatas said. “He’s just a good player. He can pass and score the ball. Ethan Blackmore had an incredible effort on him to hold him to five points. He’s the focal point of their offense.”
Segarra scored six of his nine points in the fourth quarter. Christian Wilson led the Raiders with 12 points and hit a 3-pointer to push it to 40-32. Segarra also grabbed seven rebounds.
The Trojans (9-12, 5-4) could not get closer than five points the rest of the game.
“We just didn’t execute down the stretch,” C-G coach Adam McCloud said. “We had opportunities and made some mistakes, turnovers, tough shots. Jake was really aggressive getting to the basket and had good looks, it just wasn’t his night. He had a couple where I said, ‘Man, that’s a good look, a good, strong take.’
“They played very good defense. They made it difficult to get the ball inside and when we did, we just didn’t capitalize on it. They got enough cushion and we just ran out of gas.”
McCloud lamented the last possession of the third quarter with his team leading 30-28. The Trojans had a chance for the last shot, but Huntley forced a turnover and Segarra split two free throws.
“Two days ago, we lost to Dundee-Crown (50-48 in overtime) on a really tough night, so we knew we had to trust each other and play all four quarters to be able to win the game,” Segarra said. “We just communicated well on the switches. We boxed out well. Getting rebounds was really big for us.”