Boys Basketball: Huntley struggles, but still tops Jacobs

Updated: January 18, 2012 9:50PM

Huntley boys basketball coach Marty Manning was reluctant to use any stock excuses for his team’s lethargic play against Jacobs Wednesday.

But even Manning had to admit that there may have been some reasons why the Red Raiders struggled to a 50-37 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win.

In the midst of a 15-1 season, Huntley is in the middle of finals all week and have a huge showdown with Elgin lurking at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates Saturday, giving Wednesday’s game against 3-15 Jacobs all the makings of a classic trap game.

“Hopefully, it’s all of the excuses they can use,” Manning said. “You hate to say that, but you’re right, they’re high school kids. They could be tired. We have to look at it like that. We’ll find out Saturday, because if we make those same mistakes, we’ll get beat pretty bad on Saturday.”

It took one solid stretch in the fourth quarter for Huntley (4-0 FVC Valley) to finally put the Golden Eagles (1-2 FVC Valley) away. Will Schwerdtmann and Bobby Mladenovic started the fourth quarter off with buckets for Jacobs, slicing Huntley’s lead to a mere 35-32.

An 8-0 run over 2:23 helped push the lead out to 43-32 with 2:52 left in the game. Jacobs turned the ball over three times in that stretch, and Huntley junior guard Bryce Only keyed the run with three points, a steal and an assist.

“(Manning) told us that we weren’t playing well in the defensive end at all and we weren’t being physical enough,” Only said. “We had to try to do better in the second half, and we did. It was a team effort. We had to pick up our intensity on the bench. We made plays in the final quarter.”

Jacobs went into the half teeming with confidence, down only 24-22 to the heavily-favored Red Raiders on the road. But Huntley scored the first eight points of the second half, four by Only (13 points) and four from the game’s leading scorer, Amanze Egekeze (16 points) to push the lead to 32-22. Jacobs, meanwhile, went scoreless the first 4:40 of the half.

“You feel like the game is yours,” Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle said. “The home court advantage is gone. But the first couple of minutes of the second half are always crucial, and they came out and scored the first six points. We didn’t score for a while to start the third quarter. Those are important minutes.”

Mladenovic paced the Golden Eagles with nine points in the loss.

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