Cary-Grove cruises past Elgin

The top-seeded Cary-Grove girls basketball team's defensive pressure induced 38 turnovers by No. 4 Elgin, enough to fuel a 64-40 victory in a Class 4A Cary-Grove regional semifinal Tuesday.

Junior Claire Jakubicek led Cary-Grove (25-3) with 23 points to go with 5 rebounds, and sophomore guard Paige Lincicum finished with 11 points and 6 rebounds.

The Trojans advance to the regional title game on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. They will face Streamwood (12-16), which defeated Dundee-Crown 54-32 in Tuesday's second semifinal.

Though Cary-Grove's ball pressure, press and traps forced 29 Elgin turnovers in the first two quarters alone en route to a 32-14 halftime lead, the Trojans insisted they can play better defense than the brand it demonstrated against Elgin (2-26).

"I'm proud of the girls for winning the first regional game, but defensively there are things we need to improve on going into our next game," Jakubicek said. "We can play better defense, we can rebound better and we have to put together more offense."

The Maroons shot the ball well when they weren't shooting themselves in the foot. They drilled 7-of-13 shots in the first half and opened the third quarter on a 7-1 run behind Brandi Hernandez's 3-pointer and a pair of inside baskets from Evelyn Boje to cut the deficit to 12 points.

Elgin also sank three straight 3-point attempts to end of the quarter without interference from the Cary-Grove defense, a sequence that irked Trojans coach Rod Saffert.

"They started canning shots there that were wide open because we failed to communicate," Saffert said. "I was very disappointed with our start. We didn't play with any defensive intensity at all. We can play better and we need to play better."

Hernandez led Elgin with 7 points in her final game. Fellow seniors Abbey Houde, Danielle Lawry and Evelyn Boje each scored 6 points.

"They were a very good team," Houde said of Cary-Grove. "I thought we did a good job, but it was tiring. They really made us work."