CL South snaps Huntley winning streak
The Crystal Lake South boys basketball team got downright defensive Tuesday night.
The Gators' 1-3-1 matchup zone defense frustrated Huntley shooters throughout CL South's 46-38 victory in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division opener for both teams in Huntley.
The Red Raiders (11-5, 0-1), who saw their 4-game winning streak snapped, shot 12 of 42 from the field (28.6 percent), 4 of 17 from 3-point range (23.5 percent) and were held 15 points below their team scoring average of 53.2. Juniors Tyler Brunschon and Dylan Neukirch were Huntley's leading scorers with 11 points apiece.
The Gators forced only 9 Huntley turnovers, but they often made the Red Raiders work the ball around for over a minute per possession in search of open shots that rarely presented themselves.
"We tried to take our time but we didn't attack the basket, and when we got open shots we weren't ready to shoot," Brunschon said. "That's what caused us to have such an off night tonight."
Said CL South junior Robbie Lemke of the 1-3-1: ""We've been practicing that hard, working on changing things up and reading the offense they're playing and adjusting. We play hard, so I never really had any doubt that we could win this game. It feels good and it means good things to come for the rest of the year."
The win was the fourth straight for the improving Gators (8-6, 1-0), who have concentrated on defensive improvements since eking out a 1-point win at Harlem on Saturday.
"We did it pretty poorly over at Harlem on Saturday, our 1-3-1," CL South coach Dan DeBruycker said. "So, we focused in practice on just getting to the positions and our spots, using our length and knowing where (Brunschon) is because he can flat-out shoot it. I thought we did a pretty good job of it."
Both teams found it difficult to score early. The Gators took a 5-4 lead after a quarter despite missing their first 8 attempts from 3-point range. However, they drilled 3 of their next 4 attempts in the second quarter as Lemke connected twice and junior Ryan Price sank another to give the Gators a 17-12 halftime lead.
A 7-0 CL South run in the third quarter ballooned its lead to 26-15. Junior Gavin Rubin scored on a short putback jumper, Lemke hit another 3-pointer and Alex Macaulay converted a fast-break layup, courtesy of Ethan Breitenstein's steal and assist.
Huntley stayed within 3 possessions most of the second half and cut the deficit to 36-33 on sophomore Justin Frederick's baseline jumpshot with 2:28 to play. A foul whistled away from the play gave the Raiders a chance to cut the margin to a single point, but the shooter missed both free throws.
CL South responded with 6-0 run to pull away: Kevin Rogers sank 2 free throws in the super bonus; Lemke (game-high 18 points) drilled his fourth 3-pointer; and Breitenstein split a pair from the line. The Gators made 16-of-22 free throws; Huntley 9 of 19.
Coach Marty Manning found his Red Raiders' lack of production against the 1-3-1 zone puzzling.
"We knew it was coming, we worked on it," Manning said. "Our guys did a very poor job of executing. We didn't shoot the ball well, so that made it look even worse. But besides that we didn't look at the spots we were supposed to look. The guys were very slow in executing the way they were supposed to and that was disappointing."