Huntley's defense leads to regional

Updated: March 23, 2011 2:24PM

Whoever coined the phrase "defense wins championships" was right on the button when it came to the Class 4A championship game at Huntley on Thursday night.

The second-seeded Red Raiders' stifling defense led them to their fourth regional title in the past five years with a 40-34 win over top seeded DeKalb. Senior Kadie Lowery led Huntley in scoring with 13 points and fellow senior Carly Goede added 11.

But it was the defense that set the tone from the outset for the Raiders. Huntley (20-8) held the Barbs without a basket until the final second of the first quarter and limited DeKalb to just 14 of 38 (36 percent) shooting from the field in the game.

DeKalb's big scoring threat Taylor White was limited to just nine points, and six of those came on desperation 3-pointers at the buzzers to end the first and second quarters. White was scoreless in the second half.

The Barbs' two big 6-foot post players Kelly Gerace and Emily Bemis were held to just 13 points combined.

"They have a lot of weapons and I can't say enough about the job we did on defense to shut them down," said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. "I thought we played with a lot of discipline and everybody understood their responsibility. The first thing we wanted to do was take away their inside game. We got great help defense to contain their post players and were still able to close out on their perimeter shooters. Getting those initial stops in the first quarter really gave us some momentum."

On one DeKalb possession in the first quarter the Huntley crowd gave their Red Raiders a standing ovation after they held the Barbs without a shot for nearly three minutes.

"That just got us pumped up," said Goede. "I think we took them right out of their game by taking away the high post. We really got them frustrated from the beginning and put the pressure on them."

The Red Raiders led 17-14 at the break courtesy of three 3-pointers from Lowery and two more from Goede. DeKalb briefly rallied to pull ahead 20-19 early in the third quarter, but the Red Raiders answered right back to regain a 23-20 lead on a 3-pointer from Lowery with 2:38 left in the third quarter.

The lead swelled to 33-24 when the Red Raiders scored the first six points of the fourth quarter. Meagan Flynn had two of the baskets on breakaway layups. DeKalb never got closer than five points the rest of the way.

"It was a complete collective effort by our whole team," said Raethz. "It's been a journey to get here and it was real special to do it on our home floor."

For Goede and Lowery, who both came up to the varsity team as freshman, it was their third regional title.

"It's really exciting," said Lowery. "It's just really great to have been a part of this since freshman year."

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