Third-quarter surge powers Cary-Grove past Jacobs

It's a long-held basketball belief that the first few minutes of the third quarter is the critical juncture in the game.

Cary-Grove, which held an 8-point lead at the break, knew that. And senior guard Paige Hoscheit knew it, too. So the senior guard did something about it.

Hoscheit scored her team's first 7 points of the period, including a 3-pointer just 10 seconds into the quarter, and it ignited the Trojans in their 51-34 Fox Valley Conference girls basketball victory Friday over Jacobs in the Elroy Fitzgerald Gymnasium.

"We talked at halftime that our lead wasn't enough, that we had to come out and make it clear and put them away," said Hoscheit, who finished with 11 points. "When that (3) went it, it fired us up. I felt from a leadership standpoint it was important to help pick the team up."

Teammate Lilliana Kurth also had a spurt of her own, scoring nine of her team-high 13 points to close the second half as the Trojans (1-1, 1-1 FVC) turned a slim 16-14 lead into a 25-17 advantage at halftime.

"I'm so proud of these kids. To come out and score 51 points when we weren't at our (shooting) best, and to come back from Wednesday (a 28-point loss to Burlington Central) the way they did, I'm so proud of them," C-G coach Tony Moretti said. "We're a youthful team. We have only three seniors and we have four sophomores, so there's a lot of growing we will do. These girls work so hard for me and I try to work just as hard for them. They're a joy to coach."

Jacobs (0-2, 0-2) hung with the Trojans for the game's first 12 minutes. MacKenzie Leahy (19 points, 8 rebounds) put in a short shot with 4:01 left in the half to make it 16-14 before Kurth's scoring spree created some distance. Jacobs would go the Next 11:26 of the game before it hit another field goal in the final minute of the third.

"From Wednesday (a 54-25 loss to Crystal Lake Central) to today, the girls made great progress," Jacobs coach Jon Reibel said. "Like all teams, we're struggling with only six practices, so our goal here is to try to make this fun, for us to compete hard, and to get them to learn. They did that tonight."

The Trojans' low-post duo of Lauren Passaglia (11 points, 9 rebounds) and Emily Lukowski (7 points, 13 boards) provided C-G many second-chance opportunities. The hosts shot only 29 percent (16 for 55), but hit 15 of its 24 free throws, a vast improvement over an 8-for-20 clip against Burlington.

"Defensively, yes, we were much better, and offensively we weren't great, but we were not as sloppy as the other night," Moretti said. "You saw us run every kid out there tonight and that's how we're going to play this season."