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Prairie Ridge surprises Cary-Grove

When talking about the preseason favorites in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division Huntley, Cary-Grove and Crystal Lake South were the first teams mentioned by most.

You can add Prairie Ridge to that list.

The Wolves followed an impressive win over South on Tuesday with a solid effort in a 65-54 victory over four-time defending division champion Cary-Grove in FVC Valley action in Crystal Lake Friday night.

“We had a very good week,” said PR coach Rob Baker. “Nobody would have thought we could beat teams the caliber of South and Cary-Grove. Tonight we played extremely hard and played very well at the defensive end. On offense, we did a good job of reading their defense and got the ball to the open people. “

Cary-Grove’s defense couldn’t contain PR’s inside-outside combination of seniors Sarah Lebeau and Maddie Drain, who combined for 45 points.

LeBeau shredded the Trojan defense for 6 3-pointers and 23 points while the 6-foot-4 Drain was unstoppable inside with 22 points and 19 rebounds.

“We lost a lot of players from last year and we weren’t sure how we would do this year,” said Drain. “We are pleasantly surprised that we started so fast in the conference. To beat South and Cary-Grove in the same week is quite an accomplishment. It has been a lot of years since we beat Cary.”

Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert was disgusted with his team’s defensive effort.

“We knew Sarah LeBeau was a good shooter and we let her shoot any 3 she wanted to,” said Saffert. “We stood by and let Maddie Drain get any shot she wanted. We refused to guard them. We obviously have a lot of work to do.”

Cary-Grove (6-3, 1-1), which never led in the game, played catch up the whole night.

Led by 6 points from Drain in the first quarter, the Wolves led 15-6 after 8 minutes.

Paced by 13 points in the second quarter from Katie Barker that included 3 3-pointers, the Trojans closed the PR gap to 3, 31-28, at halftime.

Cary-Grove eventually tied the game at 39 on a 3-pointer from Sarah Kendeigh with 2:11 left in the third quarter. PR took the lead for good at 42-39 on a trey by LeBeau with 1:06 left in the quarter.

The Wolves put the game on ice in the final 1:23 connecting on 8-of-8 from the free-throw line. LeBeau made 4-of-4 from the charity stripe while Sarah Kilhoffer and Kelly Klendworth each made 2-of-2.

Barker led Cary-Grove with 21 points while Abby Glaysher scored 13.

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