Jacobs dumps Dundee-Crown for 4th straight

There was no conference championship at stake.

Regional pairings have already been announced.

It doesn't matter, right?

Hardly. When Dundee-Crown and Jacobs meet on the hardwood, District 300 bragging rights are enough to motivate both teams.

Outscoring Dundee-Crown 10-2 in the final 3 minutes, Jacobs avenged an earlier loss to the Chargers with a 44-41 victory in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game at D-C Friday night.

Jacobs, winners of 4 straight, is 7-18 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

"We told the kids when we win one the wins will start coming," said Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle. "We got the defensive stops when we needed them and played good defense all night. It certainly wasn't sumo wrestling out there. It was 10 scrawny kids playing hard and physical. There weren't many open looks for either team tonight."

D-C (4-18, 1-8) grabbed a 5-point lead, 39-34, on 2 free throws from Jamel Kimbrough with 3 minutes left in the game.

Jacobs responded with 9 straight points on 7 free throws and 1 basket. Mike Billings, Matt Schmidt and Sean Meyer made 2 free throws each and Mike Peterson converted 1-of-2 from the line. The lone basket in the run came on a steal by Matt Ehrhardt, who threw a perfect pass to Meyer who made a layup to give the Golden Eagles the lead for good 40-39 with 51.1 seconds left.

With Jacobs leading 43-39, D-C broke an almost 3 minute scoring drought on a layup by Kevin Cronin with 6.1 seconds left to make the score 43-41. Peterson made 1-of-2 from the line with 1 second left to seal the win.

With no players in double figures, Jacobs was led by Peterson and Schmidt with 9 points each. Meyer and Billings tallied 8 each and Ehrhardt scored 6 with 3 steals and 2 assists.

"This is the first time the seniors have beaten D-C at the varsity level," said Meyer. "It feels great. The first loss earlier in the season was very disappointing. It was a game we felt we should have won. We really worked our behinds off on defense and it is always to fun to play D-C."

Ryan Smith led the Chargers with 11 points. Sean Bernhard and Kimbrough (9 rebounds) scored 10 each.

"We had a hard time trying to get anything to drop," said Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber. "We missed shots early and missed shots late. We had way too many key turnovers which is tough to recover from."