Huntley rolls over Jacobs for 11th straight win

Jacobs girls basketball coach Joe Benoit threw every defensive set he had in his bag of tricks at Huntley forward Ali Andrews on Saturday.

As it turned out, all the fronting, traps and double teams dedicated to the 6-foot 2 forward still wasn't enough in Huntley's 58-34 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division home win over the Golden Eagles.

The Illinois recruit scored a game-high 23 points and along with her 6 rebounds, the Red Raiders (19-4, 6-0) earned their 11th-straight win and their 16th victory in their last 17 games.

Andrews was 8 of 15 from the field and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line, as the only real time she appeared to be stopped was when one of her shot attempts wedged between the rim and the glass.

"What didn't we try on her? We kind of threw everything we had at her," said Benoit. "She's just so good. She was tough to stop tonight. When she's scoring like she's scoring, it's going to be a long night for us."

"They really tried to sink in on her and tried to deny her the ball," Red Raiders' coach Steve Raethz said. "But to her credit she's seen a lot of that this year and our kids did a nice job of getting her the basketball and Ali did a nice of job being patient, sitting down in the post and taking the opportunities that came her way."

Andrews poured in 13 in the first half, showing off not just her array of moves but even her passing skills with 2 assists, as the junior got her teammates involved when many Eagles collapsed on her.

"I've been practicing a lot when people double team so it's easier," Andrews said, who scored above her 20.8 scoring average and is now just 66 points off 2004 graduate Samantha Mader's school record of 1,655 career points. "If you work it in a lot more (in the post) there will be some open shots because they'll be more focused on the inside. We got people to knock down open shots and that helps out a lot."

Junior Paige Renkosik mainly benefitted from Andrews' kicks, totaling 9 points, knocking down one 3-pointer and rebounding 4 second chance points.

"We knew we had to step up, especially when she's getting doubled and tripled-teamed," said Renkosik, who had 4 rebounds. "We had to do our part."

Kayla Barreto was in that mix, adding 11 points including three 3-pointers. Her first deep shot in the right wing gave Huntley a 17-8 advantage with 2:10 left in the first quarter. The Red Raiders never really looked back after that as Huntley outscored Jacobs (7-13, 1-5) 11-7 in the second and Andrews opened the third on a fadeaway in the paint. Her putback with 5:25 left gave Huntley a 32-19 advantage.

"We just had to adjust to their defense and work the ball around, work as a team, work it inside out," Andrews said. "We knew we'd get open shots."

Huntley, which saw 8 players register in the scoring column and scored on 11 second-chance points, also held the Golden Eagles to just a 25.5 percent clip from the field while winning the rebound battle 29-25. Jacobs' 19 turnovers also helped snap a 2-game win streak as Jessica Powell led the way with 8 points while Teaghan Richman and Carly Sidor chipped in 5 points each for the Eagles.

"I can't fault our kids' effort, we kept coming out with the best that we could," said Benoit. "Our kids are disappointed, there's no doubt because I think we know we can play better than what we did, especially on the offensive end of the floor but it's a great learning experience for us."