Nicholson lifts Cary-Grove to 16th regional title
With Cary-Grove senior standout Claire Jakubicek saddled with foul trouble, Trojans' coach Rod Saffert was looking for someone to fill the void of Jakubicek's absence.
Sophomore Joslyn Nicholson came off the bench to give the Trojans the spark they needed.
Nicholson's 10 points, all in the first half, helped top-seeded Cary-Grove cruise past second-seeded Streamwood 50-29 in the championship game of the Class 4A Dundee-Crown girls basketball regional Thursday night.
The Trojans (26-3) play Huntley (20-8) at the Jacobs sectional Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Red Raiders won their own regional, 40-34, over DeKalb. Geneva will meet Hononegah in the 8:10 p.m. semifinal.
Cary-Grove has now won back-to-back regional titles and its third in the last four years. It's the 16th regional crown in program history.
"We all know if Claire is not in the game everybody has to step up," said Nicholson. "I come in the game and try to stay clam and composed. I want to slow down and try not to play too fast. I want to make sure I play team basketball and not selfishly. The whole team played very strong tonight."
Saffert has faith in Nicholson's talents.
"Joslyn came in did a great job off the bench," said Saffert. "The kids know if Claire is out they have to step up. We played a lot of last season without Meg (Straumann) and got to the sectionals. We got tough when we had to. This was a very good team win against a very good Streamwood team."
The Trojans seized control of the game with a tremendous defensive effort in the second quarter. Holding a slim 9-8 lead after one quarter, the Trojans scored the first 15 points of the second quarter. Making 7-of-8 shots from the field, Paige Lincicum keyed the surge with 6 points. Nicholson and Olivia Jakubicek tallied 4 points each as the Trojans opened up a 24-8 lead with 3:12 left in the half.
Streamwood, which didn't score for 12 minutes, broke the drought with a basket by Megan McGlone with 1:33 left in the first half to make the score 24-10.
Cary-Grove, which led 28-10 at halftime, held its biggest lead at 24, 44-20, with 6:06 left on a layup by Straumann, who along with Claire Jakubicek won her 100th varsity game at Cary-Grove.
Lincicum and Olivia Jakubicek joined Nicholson with 10 points each for the Trojans.
Streamwood (22-6), which shot 24 percent from the field and committed 36 turnovers, was led by senior standouts Emma Schmidt (14 points) and Michelle Tomczak (7 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocked shots).
"We were in control of the game after the first quarter," said Streamwood coach George Rosner, whose team finished its best season since 1987-88 at 22-6. "We got good shots and got (Claire) Jakubicek in foul trouble. I thought we could have had the big lead, but we stopped executing. We missed free throws, missed layups and made too many turnovers."