Trojans win at line

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CARY – Cary-Grove changed it’s offense to draw fouls, then won the game at the free-throw line.

The Trojans' boys basketball team scored 15 of its 21 second-half points at the free-throw line en route to a 51-48 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win against Crystal Lake South on Tuesday at Elroy Fitzgerald Gymnasium.

The win gave C-G (12-10 overall, 6-1 FVC Valley) sole possession of first place in the division. McHenry’s game against Dundee-Crown was postponed because of the snow Tuesday. The Trojans will face the Warriors (14-5, 5-1) at McHenry on Friday.

“We stepped up,” C-G coach Ralph Schuetzle said. “[Ryan] Barker, Chad [McCarron] and [Matt] Jones nailed the free throws. South might have won had we not done a nice job hitting our free throws.”

The Trojans shot 15 of 18 (83 percent) from the line in the second half. Barker (11 points) crashed the boards and drew four fouls, then went 7 for 8 from the line in the second half.

“It was definitely physical,” Barker said. “It’s been a big rivalry with South, so both teams are playing hard. ... We all got after the ball. We just out-hustled them tonight.”

South (12-9, 5-2) trailed, 28-25, at halftime, but opened the third quarter on a 4-0 run to take a one-point lead with 6:41 left in the quarter.

The Gators didn’t score again for almost four minutes. The Trojans forced five turnovers on defense and changed their attack against South’s zone defense.

“We made a little adjustment in our zone offense and Chad got more touches in the second half, which kind of forced them to play more man-to-man later in the game,” Schuetzle said.

South could not come closer than three points the rest of the way. Part of what hurt the Gators was the discrepancy in free-throws: South had only 9 attempts, against 21 for C-G.

“One of our major goals was to try to make more free throws than they take and that didn’t happen,” South coach Dan DeBruycker said. “I’m not blaming the game on the officials. I’m blaming the game on how we executed.

We turned the ball over too many times, we gave them too many offensive rebounds and that put them on the line.”

Jones led the Trojans with 17 points, and McCarron added 16.

Kevin Rogers led South with 20 points, including four three-pointers.