Wheeling extends Huntley’s losing streak to 5

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HUNTLEY – Huntley’s girls basketball team needs a win.

On a four-game skid in the final few weeks of the regular season that is as perplexing as it appears, the Red Raiders hosted Wheeling on Monday desperate to break the streak.

Instead, Huntley extended its skid to five games with a 53-42 non-conference loss to the Wildcats and continue to search for exactly what’s been missing since its marquee win against Cary-Grove on Jan. 14.

Raiders coach Steve Raethz could have pointed to a number of snags in Huntley’s game Monday but summarized enough to hopefully spark a team far better than its 11-11 record indicates.

“We didn’t sustain effort, and I think that’s something we just haven’t done in our last few games,” Raethz said. “We gotta get back to sustaining effort for four quarters. Right now we’re not doing that at all.”

And so the Raiders’ situation has gone from troubling to urgent.

What started with a loss to McHenry on Jan. 17 continued Monday almost from the opening tip against Wheeling (8-17). The Wildcats held the Raiders without a field goal until the 2:16 mark in the first quarter when senior guard Abbey Shaw (nine points) scored on a baseline jumper.

Wheeling then rattled off six consecutive points to lead 13-4 at the end of the first quarter. The Wildcats extended their advantage to 19-9 with 5:10 left before halftime when senior forward Leah Malsom scored on a layup in transition – a trend that hurt the Raiders throughout the game.

The Wildcats capitalized on all but two of the Raiders’ 10 first-half turnovers, and the giveaways led to 16 of their 29 points by halftime. Wheeling led 29-20 at the half.

“I think we give up turnovers and give up a little bit, but we need that drive to keep going and forget about it,” said Huntley sophomore forward Sam Andrews, who led all scorers with 19 points. “I think a lot of our players are hard on themselves and get frustrated but … we need to stop being so hard on ourselves.”

Huntley came back in the fourth and pulled within nine, 51-42, when junior guard Haley Ream swiped the ball and dropped a pass to junior forward Haley Sabie for a layup.

But the surge couldn’t undo the prior missteps.

“I think we are in dire need of a win,” Raethz said. “I think once we get it we’ll get that confidence back, but right now we just need to focus on doing the little things in order to make ourselves successful.”