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Huntley claims Dundee-Crown title

The beginning of the fourth quarter Wednesday night belonged to the Hononegah girls basketball.

The final 3 minutes was all Huntley and that was good enough to beat the Indians, 45-38, to claim the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament championship.

“Our kids did a great job battling back and sustaining the effort defensively,” Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. “We executed really well on some key positions offensively.”

Huntley (6-0), which finished the tournament 5-0, led 35-29 heading into the fourth quarter. The Indians scored the first 9 points of the quarter to take a 38-35 lead with 4:31 remaining. Hononegah would not score again.

Ali Andrews, who struggled with foul trouble for most of the game, finally scored the Red Raiders’ first points of the fourth with 2:41 to go to make it 38-37. Sam Andrews hit 2 free throws with 1:14 remaining to give Huntley the lead for good at 39-38.

“We needed to limit (our) turnovers, secure the ball and get rebounds,” Sam Andrews said of the fourth-quarter rally.

Sam Andrews, Kayla Barreto and Jessica Brock each hit a pair of free throws in the final minute to hold off Hononegah.

Just as the fourth quarter had momentum swings so did the first three quarters. Neither team played all that well in the first quarter as the Red Raiders took a 7-3 lead after the first. The Indians used a 9-0 run to open an 11-7 lead. Huntley answered with a 8-0 run to take a 15-11 lead. The Red Raiders maintained the lead until the fourth quarter.

“It was a total and collective team effort,” Raethz said. “I was really pleased with our effort defensively. We made some mistakes ourselves and had some turnovers here and there. But we continued to battle the entire game.”

Sam Andrews scored a game-high 15 points and 12 rebounds. Ali Andrews and Barreto each added 9 points.

Brandi Fier, Tiana Thomas and Rebecca Skurski each had 7 points to lead Hononegah.

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