Huntley bounces back, beats Prairie Ridge
When Prairie Ridge crept close Saturday night, the Huntley girls basketball team turned up the defense.
The Red Raiders’ lead was down to 5 points after a basket from Maddie Drain less than 20 seconds into the fourth quarter. That was the last field goal Prairie Ridge would score.
Huntley held the Wolves to just 2 free throws the rest of the game en route to a 49-35 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victory.
“They are tough to score on. They play great defense,” Wolves coach Rob Baker said. “We couldn’t get enough things going offensively to stick with them.”
The Red Raiders (10-1, 3-0) never trailed and their lead was never under two, which happened just three times and never after 15-13 with 3:33 remaining in the second quarter.
Ali Andrews scored 7 of her 12 points in the first half as Huntley led 23-14 at halftime. A basket from Abbey Brown with 5:17 to go in the third quarter gave the Red Raiders a 16-point lead, 34-18.
Prairie Ridge cut the deficit to 5, 36-31, with 12.4 seconds remaining in the third on a pair of free throws from Kirsten Voel-Pel. A Kelli Rubino basket gave Huntley a 38-31 lead after the third quarter.
Drain’s basket with 7:43 remaining cut the Red Raiders’ advantage to 38-33. Sam Andrews had 4 points and Ali Andrews hit a 3-pointer during a 7-0 run, during which Prairie Ridge had 4 consecutive turnovers.
“We knew that as long as we kept our composure we were going to be able to win the game,” said Huntley senior Bethany Zornow, who finished with 10 points. “We slowed the game down and played it our way and the way we wanted to.”
The Wolves didn’t score again until Sarah LeBeau had a pair of free throws with 2:17 remaining.
Huntley rebounded from its first lost of the season Friday night, a 30-point loss to Whitney Young.
“We weren’t concerned about bouncing back. We were concerned about this game, knowing it was a tough conference game heading into a 10-day layoff heading into the Montini tournament,” Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. “We knew coming into this PR was undefeated (in conference) with two huge wins against two quality opponents in (Crystal Lake) South and Cary-Grove last week. We knew we needed to get this one to get a leg up.”
Sam Andrews finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds. Ali Andrews added 7 rebounds.
Voel-Pel led the Wolves with 13 points. Drain had 10 points and 7 rebounds.