Finally, Warriors top rivals

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McHENRY – At long last, the Warriors loosened the stranglehold the Red Raiders had on the McHenry-Huntley rivalry.

For the first time in Scott Morris’ six years as McHenry’s girls basketball coach – a drought he believed had reached 15 games – the Warriors defeated Huntley, 43-26, in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division showdown Tuesday night.

“Emma Romme and I have been on the varsity for four years, and we have never beaten Huntley,” McHenry senior Meghan Mortell said. “We wanted to beat them so bad, and this was our last chance. We stuck together, and our whole team played well tonight.”

Mortell, Katie Hennelly (two blocks) and Brittany Avonts (four blocks) proved to be a devastating defensive trio inside. The shot-blocking towers combined for 12 rebounds and seven blocks to help the Warriors smother Huntley’s attack in the paint.

McHenry guards Romme (seven points, two steals) and Allisa Rosga (13 points, four steals) also chipped in defensively by teaming up for six steals on the perimeter.

“I thought the kids played hard, and defensively, I thought we were just outstanding,” Morris said.

As they pulled away with a 15-3 advantage in the second quarter, the Warriors (14-9, 3-4 FVC Valley) held the visiting Raiders scoreless over a 7:18 span that carried into the second half. Huntley shot 6 for 43 (14 percent) from the field for the contest.

The Raiders (11-7, 5-2), who were coming off a huge win against Cary-Grove on Saturday, failed to put pressure on Valley Division leaders C-G and Dundee-Crown.

“With the parity that we have in our conference, you can’t afford to walk into the gym and not be ready to play,” Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. “And that was the bottom line tonight – we weren’t ready to play. It was really disappointing to see the effort that we had tonight, especially coming off a great win on Saturday. You’d think we would have used it as a springboard, but instead we took a step back tonight.”

After a 7-7 draw in the first quarter, McHenry poured in 12 unanswered points to open the second quarter to grab a 19-7 lead on a post move by Mortell (10 points, seven rebounds) with 4:10 left in the half.

The Warriors opened the third quarter with another 10-2 run, building their biggest lead of the game, 32-12, on a three-pointer by Michelle Kelly (seven points) with 2:32 to play in the third.
It appeared as though the Raiders might make things interesting heading into the fourth quarter. Huntley leading scorer Sam Andrews (eight points, five rebounds) converted a three-point play – her first field goal of the game – with 1:47 left to slice the lead to 32-18 after three quarters.

But Rosga, who gave the Warriors a huge lift off the bench, finished on a slashing drive to put McHenry up, 36-18, with five minutes to play. Her steal and bucket with less than three minutes remaining made it 40-21 and put the finishing touches on McHenry’s long-awaited victory.

“I hope this gives us some confidence,” Morris said. “We beat Huntley for the first time since I’ve been here and hopefully, it just gets us rolling.”