Boys basketball: Jacobs shakes off sluggish start, tops Dundee-Crown
His parents gifted him the new white headband.
Elijah Bell continues to gift his Jacobs basketball teammates with perfect passes.
Both were on display Tuesday night as the Golden Eagles hosted Dundee-Crown in a Fox Valley Conference game in Algonquin.
“It’s his best asset — his ability to pass the ball,” Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts said of Bell, his 6-foot-3 junior point guard. “It’s how he’s grown up. It might not look like it, but he’s kind of a reluctant scorer.”
Bell scored, passed and did a little bit of everything in leading the Eagles to a 52-41 win, their fourth in a row, which equals their best winning streak of the season.
Bell finished with a game-high 20 points — including three 3-pointers in the second quarter after a sluggish start by both teams — five assists, four rebounds, three steals and a blocked shot.
He did it all while wearing his new headband.
“My parents got it for me for Christmas,” said Bell, who’s wearing the headband for home games and a black armband for away contests.
“I just wanted to try something new, just to get my swag on,” he said with a smile.
No other player scored in double figures for Jacobs (14-10, 6-6 FVC), but the Eagles had eight other players score at least one basket. Mind you, neither team hit double-digit points until early in the second quarter.
“It gets into a grind,” said Roberts, whose Eagles trailed 6-4 after one quarter. “We talked about it going into the game that it’s usually a limited-possession game [against D-C]. We want to increase the number of possessions. Otherwise, you got to be super efficient.”
Rasheed Trice scored 15 points for the Chargers (4-17, 1-12), who took FVC leader Cary-Grove to overtime Friday night before losing.
After missing all four of his shots in the opening quarter, Bell heated up in the second, shooting 4 of 6 from the floor, including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. His 13 points in the quarter had Jacobs up 23-19 at halftime.
“He had a nice game tonight,” D-C coach Lance Huber said of Bell “He played well. Good player, made some shots, controlled the game. We just really didn’t have an answer for him. He was tough.”
Malachi Bell, Elijah’s freshman brother, hit a 3-pointer for his only basket of the night to start an 11-0 run in the third quarter, and the Eagles were in control for good.
Jacobs built its lead to 39-24 when big man Quinn Gorges scored on a spin move — his only basket of the night — with 1:41 left in the third.
“I thought it was a really good job by our guys in the second half to get that [lead] up to 15,” Roberts said. “Then we had some great possessions late.”
Leading 41-30 early in the fourth, Bell had an open 3 at the top of the key. He faked the shot, then fired a bullet to Samson Averehi (four points, two blocks) under the basket for an uncontested layup.
“When teams guard me, they have all eyes on me,” Bell said. “I’m a threat at the top, so they’re like, ‘When (No.) 13 has the ball, try not to let him score.’ Scoring is my second-best ability, and I believe my passing is my [best] ability. My dad [Lafeyette] taught me that when I was young. I was able to find guys at a young age.”
Bell (No. 13) made 7 of his last 11 shots after his 0-of-4 start. He twice found George Donze (6 points) for 3-pointers.
D-C sophomore shooter Nathan Pederson scored 11 points, including three 3s, coming off the bench. Trice made 9 of 10 free throws.
“They came out and took it at us [in the third quarter],“ Huber said of the Eagles. ”I looked up with about three minutes to go [in the quarter], and I think we scored only two baskets. They just made some shots, and we had a hard time making [shots] that quarter.”