Second half comeback puts Cary-Grove over Huntley

The Cary-Grove girls basketball team was not happy with its defensive effort in the first half Wednesday night.

So the Trojans did something about it.

Trailing Huntley 34-21 at halftime, Cary-Grove came out with a renewed sense of purpose and held the Red Raiders to just 18 second-half points. And, the Trojans' offense got in gear as well, which led to a 58-52 Trojan win in a battle of Fox Valley Conference Valley Division unbeatens in Cary-Grove's Elroy Fizgerald Gymnasium.

Senior Johanna Geegan nailed a 3-pointer off a feed from Olivia Jakubicek to give Cary-Grove its first lead since midway through the first quarter, 48-45, with 5:19 left in the game. Geegan then extended the lead with a bucket off a Huntley turnover to make it 50-45 with 3:17 left, and the Trojans (15-3, 5-0) made 7 of 8 from the free-throw line down the stretch to ice the win.

“We just knew we had to play together and be more focused on our defense because our defense gets our offense going,” said Geegan of Cary-Grove's mindset facing the 13-point halftime deficit.

Huntley (11-5, 4-1) owned the defending league champion Trojans in the first half. Kadie Lowery had 12 of her 14 points and Carly Goede 10 of her 15 as the Red Raiders shot a blistering 67 percent (14 of 21) from the field, while Cary-Grove struggled to make 8 of 25 in its own gym.

“We had good shots, they just weren't falling,” said C-G coach Rod Saffert.

The Red Raiders still held a 45-32 lead after a Rachel Chapius basket with 2:04 left in the third quarter, but a Meg Straumann bucket with 1:04 left in the period started the Trojans on am incredible 18-0 run that included Geegan's 3-pointer giving them the lead and some insurance.

“Biggest shot of the night,” said Saffert of Geegan's 3. “That's her role. She's not going to get as many looks as everyone else and there was some pressure there.”

Huntley, which made just 2 of 10 shots in the fourth quarter, hung in and closed to within 2 at 50-48 on a CeCe Tsevas 3-pointer with 3:03 to play but Cary-Grove went into its “Hononegah” offense — a four corners “ice it” offense — and the Trojans made their free throws when they had to.

“We went away from the things that got us there in the first half,” said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. “We let it get away from us and we lost our composure. Give Cary-Grove a ton of credit. They came back and we didn't meet the challenge in the second half. We have to execute down the stretch and we didn't.”

NIU-bound senior Claire Jakubicek had her usual stellar game for the Trojans, scoring 25 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Straumann added 10 points, Paige Lincicum had 9 and Olivia Jakubicek 8 for Cary-Grove.

Lowery added 5 assists and 4 steals for Huntley.