Playing hungry pays off for Jacobs

Jacobs senior forward Katy Cook (left) receives the ball underneath the basket while Huntley senior forward Hillary Johnson defends during their IHSA Class 4A McHenry Regional semifinal Tuesday in McHenry. (Catalin Abagiu – cabagiu@nwherald.com)

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McHENRY – Jacobs’ girls basketball team knew what it had to do against Huntley on Tuesday night in an IHSA Class 4A McHenry Regional semifinal.

Despite a slow start, the Golden Eagles executed their game plan.

Top-seeded Jacobs earned a 43-31 victory against Fox Valley Conference Valley Division rival and fourth-seeded Huntley in the two teams’ third meeting of the season, punching a ticket to the regional title game Thursday against Hononegah.

The Indians defeated Crystal Lake South,
73-60, in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

Huntley took Jacobs into two extra sessions in the teams’ previous meeting, but the Eagles hunger for a regional title helped motivate them to overcome an early deficit.

“We get another shot at winning it, and that feels pretty good,” Jacobs senior Katy Cook said. “Three of the seniors (Cook, Hailey Cnota and Maria Tamburrino) know what it feels like to win a regional, and we want to bring that feeling to the other three seniors and the juniors on the team.”

Huntley (15-14) did its best, especially early.

The Red Raiders led, 14-6, at the end of the first quarter, but Jacobs (24-6) allowed them only 17 points for the rest of the game and outscored Huntley, 14-6, in the second quarter.

Jacobs senior guard Sierra Dunner opened the second quarter with a three-pointer off a feed from senior forward Cnota (13 points) to cut Huntley’s lead to five, 14-9, and Jacobs used an 11-4 run to take its first lead of the game, 20-18, with 2:10 left in the first half.

Huntley knotted the score at 20 off a putback from senior forward Hillary Johnson with 55 seconds on the clock, and the score stayed tied at 20 at the half.

“We woke up out there,” Cnota said. “That first half was hard, and it probably was because we had 10 days without a game. We weren’t in game mode, we were still in practice mode and Huntley came out strong and kind of shocked us. We needed to get back into the game and we did.”

Jacobs held the Raiders to four points in the third quarter and scored 13 to lead by nine, 33-24, at the end of the third. Dunner (11 points) hit another three-pointer with 1:12 to go for the nine-point cushion.

Jacobs outscored the Raiders, 10-7, in the final quarter for the win.

“We were flat in that first quarter and we panicked,” Jacobs coach Ed Haugens said. “Huntley did a nice job on the offensive glass against us in the first half, but we clamped down on defense in the second half and didn’t let them get another offensive board.”

Huntley coach Steve Raethz was pleased his team was able to finish the season strong.

“We were able to string together some wins and turn a lot of those ups and downs we had early in the season into positives down the stretch,” Raethz said. “I’m proud of the girls. They didn’t quit.”