Cary-Grove's Gregoire hits 1,000 mark

There did not appear to be anything on the line when Cary-Grove senior Jason Gregoire was fouled with five seconds left in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division boys basketball game Saturday night at Huntley.

The Trojans were just trying to finish off a 45-35 victory thanks to a big night from Gregoire. But it was about to get even bigger for the 6-foot-4 guard as his 2 free throws capped a 25-point performance and pushed him to 1,001 for his career.

"I was hoping I would get fouled at the end and make some free throws and it ended up happening," Gregoire said of reaching 1,000 points. "It's pretty cool to do it. I needed this kind of night offensively."

So did Cary-Grove (10-9, 3-3) as it shot just 25 percent from the field (10-for-40). Gregoire shot 6-for-14 from the field, 3-for-4 on 3-pointers and 10-for-12 on free throws.

Achieving a career milestone hasn't been easy this season for Gregoire. He got a late start after quarterbacking the football team to a Class 7A state runner-up finish and has battled a recurring ankle sprain.

"That was outstanding for him to reach the 1,000-point plateau," said Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schuetzle.

"I got into a rhythm early when I hit my first two 3s," Gregoire said. "That gave me some confidence. I've been struggling with 3-pointers because I haven't been able to jump with my sprained ankle but it feels a lot better now."

Cary-Grove's mix of zone defenses kept Huntley (7-14, 2-4) from getting in any flow as it missed 23 of its first 24 shots from the field and its first 12 from behind the arc.

"Our zone package was good, whether it was three-quarter court, half-court or quarter-court," Schuetzle said after Huntley finished at 19.6 percent from the field (9-for-46) and 4-for-24 on 3s.

"With our combination of pressure, that threw them off a little bit an took them out of their rhythm," Gregoire said. "Switching up all of our zone defenses kept them guessing and they never got in a rhythm."

The Red Raiders did stay close, however, even though sophomore guard Jack Bessey was not at the game for a trip to the Super Bowl. Six-6 Connor Boesch had 13 points and 15 rebounds and a 3 by freshman J.J. Flores (9 points) cut their deficit to 24-23 with 1:25 left in the third.

But Gregoire's 2 free throws started a 10-1 burst for the Trojans where Nick Barr (8 points) scored off a miss and on a drive to make it 34-24 with 4:27 left.

"I thought our effort was good, our defense was good and we rebounded good," said Huntley coach Will Benson of advantages on the glass of 39-27 overall and 16-6 offensively. "We just couldn't make any shot, let alone a big shot.

"The free-throw line was big (21-for-28 for Cary-Grove to 13-for-22 for Huntley) and the difference in the game was Gregoire was the best player on the floor, and he was able to lead his team to victory as he's done so many times in his career."