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Huntley gets another title shot at Jacobs

In a game of runs, the Huntley boys basketball team had the final one.

The Red Raiders rallied from a 16-point second-quarter deficit Thursday night and scored 8 of the game's final 10 points to beat Hope Academy, 66-60, in the semifinals of the Jacobs Holiday Tournament.

“That second quarter we played cautious instead of playing aggressive,” Red Raiders coach Marty Manning said. “We can look really bad when we do that. When we play aggressive we can look really good.”

Huntley (9-1) will play Crystal Lake Central at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the championship game. It will be the Red Raiders' second consecutive trip to the title game. They lost to Mundelein in the championship game last season.

“It's pretty exciting. This is pretty much the same record as last year. We lost to Fremd last year. We lost to Fremd this year,” Huntley senior guard Troy Miller said. “We want to win this one.”

The Red Raiders led 17-15 after the first quarter, keeping the pace more to their liking. Hope (12-2) forced Huntley into mistakes in the second quarter by speeding up the game. A basket by Colin Blaydes with 3:15 remaining in the first half capped a 21-1 run as the Eagles took a 34-18 lead. Huntley was able to get back within 10, 41-31, at halftime.

Miller said the Red Raiders hoped to get the deficit to 5 heading to the fourth quarter. They did much better. A drive and left-handed layup from Miller with 3:30 left in the third capped a 14-2 run to open the second half and gave Huntley a 45-43 lead.

“We were in sync,” Miller said of the third quarter. “We have that potential. We just don't always do it, I guess.”

Justin Frederick's layup off a feed from Miller gave the Red Raiders a 5-point lead, 54-49, with 50 seconds remaining in the third. The Eagles had a chance to get closer, but Illinois-bound Jalen James missed a dunk off a steal and committed his fourth foul with 5.5 seconds remaining.

“We made too many turnovers,” James said. “They took advantage of our mistakes.”

Hope trailed 56-51 and then went on a 7-0 run to take a 58-56 lead. The game was tied at 58-58 with 3 minutes left. Miller had 3 steals in the final 3 minutes, Bryce Only made a pair of throws and Frederick hit 6 of 6 free throws in the final 48.5 seconds to earn the victory.

Miller finished with 18 points, 8 coming in the third quarter when Huntley outscored Hope 23-8. Frederick also scored 18 points, 11 in the second half. Only added 13 points, but it was the junior's defense on James that frustrated the Hope star all night.

“Our big key defensively was not giving them layups, to clog everything up in the middle,” Manning said. “Individually Bryce had a great game on James.”

James scored 12 points to led Hope. He went 5-for-10 from the floor, but got off only one shot, a 3-point attempt, in the final 4:47 of the game. Carson Hughes added 10 points, 8 in the first half.

Images: Huntley vs. Hope Academy, boys basketball

  Hope’s Tyrone Smith and Carson Hughes scramble along with Huntley’s Troy Miller in the first period Thursday’s semifinals of the Jacobs Holiday Classic. Mark Welsh/mwelsh@dailyherald.com
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