Huntley overcomes McHenry

There wasn't much Dylan Neukirch could do to stop McHenry's Brian Madson.

As the tallest player on the floor at 6-foot 5, Madson wasn't dominating Huntley inside, he was draining 3-pointers at will. Madson nailed 7 straight attempts to bring McHenry back from a 22-point second-half deficit in Huntley.

But the Red Raiders got a timely steal from Jake Brock to hang on for a 63-56 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division boys basketball win.

“Dylan was getting pretty upset, but I told him we'd rather have him take those shots than going in the lane and dunking on us,” Red Raiders' coach Marty Manning said. “There really is nothing you can do with a 6-5 guy hitting 3s like that.”

Huntley created a 25-6 run in the second and third quarters to go up 42-20 with 6:12 left in the third quarter. The Red Raiders (14-4, 3-1) shot 56 percent (14 of 25) during the second and third quarters and outscored McHenry (12-5, 1-2) 19-6 in the second period.

Then Madson, who led all players with 27 points, caught fire. The senior scored 20 straight Warrior points to bring McHenry back to 56-42 early in the fourth quarter. Madson (12 rebounds, 3 blocks) connected on 7 straight 3-pointers, including a fadeaway with Neukirch's hand right in his face.

“It was really frustrating,” Neukirch said. “He was on fire. That was really bothering us.”

Also aiding in McHenry's second-half run was a combination of turnovers and missed free throws from Huntley. Huntley turned the ball over just twice in the first half and led 36-20 at halftime. The Red Raiders coughed the ball up 10 times in the second half and were outscored 36-27. Huntley, which shoots around 70 percent from the free-throw line, went just 47 percent (8 of 17) in the fourth quarter and 12 of 23 in the game.

Bryce Only (4 steals) split a pair of free throws with 5 seconds left after McHenry was forced to foul after Brocks' steal. Tyler Brunschon extended Huntley's lead to 62-56 when he split a pair with 39 seconds remaining. McHenry was as close as 59-55 with 1:47 left.

Justin Frederick responded by sinking both free throws when McHenry was forced to foul with 1:15 left.

Brunschon and Frederick each went 3 of 4 from the foul line in the fourth.

Brunschon said he, his dad and his brother Adam had a shooting session earlier in the day to help fix some of the recent offensive problems Brunschon has been experiencing.

The session paid off as the guard finished with a team-high 22 points on an 8 of 12 shooting effort. Brunschon nailed three 3-pointers in the first half and scored 15 points in the first half.

“My dad was getting on me with what I was doing wrong and I was getting frustrated,” Brunschon said. “But in the end it paid off.”