Huntley hangs tough, stops Prairie Ridge
Had it not been for a defensive stop on the game's final play where freshman Jadrian Flores knocked the ball loose from Prairie Ridge's Logan Card inside the top of the arc as time expired, Huntley's 32-30 win over Prairie Ridge could have turned into complete and utter disarray.
The Red Raiders (2-7), who rounded out pool play 1-2 at the Hinkle Holiday Classic Tuesday for the team's second win of the season, virtually held the Wolves (4-6) without a field goal (0-for-15) in the first half until PR's Andrew Eschweiler, who had checked in with a minute to go in the second quarter, launched a circus heave that from half-court that banked off the glass as time expired, giving Huntley a 21-4 advantage and PR its first made basket.
And from that point on the Red Raiders, who lost to PR previously at the Crystal Lake Central Thanksgiving tournament by 3, fought for their basketball livelihood. The Wolves outscored Huntley 14-6 in the third and 26-11 overall in the second half. But after limiting PR to just a free throw in the first 15:59 and escaping with a win despite 10 turnovers in the second half, the Red Raiders discovered their character after getting blown out by 31 by Larkin on Monday.
"I was glad we were able to hold on and get the defensive stop at the end, the kids played hard and both teams played really hard," said Huntley coach Will Benson, who credited PR's tough defensive scheme. "I would have felt bad for the kids for not having a successful outcome after playing so hard. It just seemed like a scramble the whole second half."
PR kept chipping away at the Huntley lead in the second half as the Raiders kept giving PR gifts with turnovers. Eventually, Huntley's 4-point lead with under 2 minutes remaining dwindled to 1 when Cory Lamb got a second chance at a missed 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 31-30 with 23.8 left. After Jason Zobott split 2 free throws with 10.8 on the clock, PR drove the length of the floor setting up the freshman Flores' stop.
"They really deserved to win that game, they had a good plan and they executed it," said Wolves' coach Corky Card, who had 2 shooters ready to pop out on the wings for either the game-tying or winning shot. "We had a chance at the end and that's all you could ask for."
Huntley's David Cruz led all scorers with 11 points, 9 coming in the second quarter when Huntley raced out to a 17-0 lead. Connor Boesch had 4 points to go with his 8 rebounds and 4 blocks and 2 steals for Huntley, which will play Grant Friday at 10:30 a.m.
"We came out real energized because we wanted to bounce back from (Monday's) bad loss," Boesch said. "I think we had to play tough defense against this team because they like to shoot and they normally have an inside presence so we had to close out hard on them. Just a good overall win."
Although PR shot 8-for-19 in the second half, fueled by Payton Otto who scored 10 points including 8 in the third which included two 3-pointers, the Wolves were held to just 10 shots made and a 28.5 percent clip overall. PR waited until the 2:33 mark in the second quarter to get its first point, a free throw by Mitchell Todd. In the meantime, Huntley shot 6 for 11 in the quarter after its 2-for-12 start, outscoring the Wolves 15-3.
"We're always tense, we always want to get a quick shot up," Cruz said. "We just played basketball. We were more relaxed and calm and doing the right things at the right time and like coach says, when we do the little things right the end result takes care of itself."