Stingy defense leads Jacobs past Waukegan
The only number Jacobs boys basketball coach Jimmy Roberts was interested in after his team's nonconference game with Waukegan was 23.
That was the number of points his stingy and stifling Golden Eagles defense gave up in cruising to an easy 55-23 win over the visiting Bulldogs in Algonquin Saturday night.
"After the first quarter the game was sloppy," said Roberts. "I looked at the scoreboard and we were winning 17-4. We have been emphasizing defense and I thought we played great defense the first quarter and very solid defense the last three quarters. At the end of the day giving up only 23 points is important. We forced them into bad shots and forced them into a lot of turnovers."
The numbers don't lie.
The overmatched Bulldogs connected on only 8-of-35 shots for 23 percent while committing 31 turnovers.
Led by Cory Boeckh's 11 points which included a pair of 3-pointers, the Golden Eagles led 15-4 after 1 quarter. Boeckh's 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first half gave Jacobs (10-5) a 24-8 advantage at intermission.
The Bulldogs scored the first points of the second half on a trey by Tremayne Gwinn to make the score 24-11 with 7:23 left in the third quarter.
Jacobs ensured there wouldn't be a second-half comeback by the Bulldogs by reeling off 15 straight points to extend a 13-point lead to 28, 39-11, with 2:40 left in the quarter.
During the game-deciding run, Kenton Mack scored 5 points including a 3-pointer and Kyle Ross buried a trey as Jacobs seized control of the game.
Emptying bench in the fourth quarter, Jacobs' biggest margin of the night was 33, 49-16, after a 12-footer in the lane by Mason Materna with 2:22 left in the contest.
Jacobs, which connected on 21-of-38 shots from the field for 55 percent and made 8-of-14 from 3-point range for 57 percent, was led by Boeckh with 16 points which included 4 from beyond the arc.
"If I hit a couple of 3s early I usually have a good night," said Boeckh. "We wanted to get off to a good start especially on defense. Coach Roberts said it was important to protect the paint."
Chrishawn Orange scored 7 points and Ross and Matt Bindi scored 6 apiece for the winners.
Jachai Taylor-Ford and Shaquille Starks scored 6 points each for Waukegan.