Carmel shuts down Egekeze, Huntley

Carmel Catholic boys basketball coach Tim Bowen had a simple defensive strategy.

Bowen wanted to limit Huntley senior center Amanze Egekeze’s touches and shot attempts.

Mission accomplished.

Egekeze connected on 4-of-9 shots in scoring 8 points, all in the first half, as Carmel’s defense was key in a 46-35 win over the Red Raiders in first round action of the Coaches vs. Cancer Thanksgiving Tournament held at Prairie Ridge High School Monday night.

Pushing Egekeze out to the perimeter, Carmel’s tall front line of 6-foot-10 senior center John George and 6-6 senior forward Michael Barr handled the Huntley center inside.

“I was very happy with our defense on Amanze, who is somebody you have to concentrate on,” said Bowen. “We wanted to limit his touches and make him work for everything. It certainly helps to have 6-10 and 6-6 in the lane. Overall our defense was very good.”

Carmel’s defense stifled Huntley from start to finish. Holding the Red Raiders to only two baskets and 5 points in the first quarter the Corsairs, led by 6 points from George, held a 14-5 advantage after eight minutes.

Huntley enjoyed its best quarter of the night in the second. With Egekeze scoring 6 points and Jason Shields 5 including a 3-pointer, the Red Raiders outscored Carmel 15-14 to slice the Corsairs’ lead to 28-20 at the intermission.

Huntley promptly cut into the Carmel advantage to start the third quarter.

With Kyle Slonka delivering a 3-pointer and a Zach Gorney putback, Huntley scored the first 5 points of the third quarter as the Red Raiders cut the Carmel lead to 3, 28-25, with 6:11 left in the quarter. Huntley couldn’t get any closer.

Carmel responded with a 7-0 run led by a 3-pointer from Chris Duff to extend a 3-point lead to 10, 35-25, with 2:26 remaining in the third quarter.

The Corsairs’ biggest lead of the night was 44-31 after a driving layup by Barr with 1:48 left in the contest.

George led the Corsairs with 20 points, 16 in the first half. He also snared 13 rebounds with 4 blocks. Nick Poyser joined George in double digits with 10 points.

Shields and Egekeze paced the Red Raiders with 8 points each.

“Teams are going to double and triple team Amanze and we got some good looks,” said Huntley coach Marty Manning. “We have to make outside shots.”