Huntley dominates Rockford East

Rarely are games won in the first quarter.

This one was.

Outscoring third-seeded Rockford East 14-2 during the first 8 minutes, Huntley's early spurt propelled the top-seeded Red Raiders to an easy 60-15 win in Class 4A Huntley girls basketball regional final action Thursday night.

The Red Raiders (26-4), winners of 18 straight and 23 of 24, claimed their third straight regional title and seventh in 9 years.

Huntley advances to the Rockford Guilford sectional and will play the winner of Friday's Grant regional title game between Crystal Lake

South and Cary-Grove at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"We got off to a great start and really competed," said Huntley coach Steve Raethz. "It was a very solid team defensive effort. We played a full 32 minutes at the defensive end. We had great communication. It is exciting to win a regional championship at home."

After spotting the E-Rabs the first 2 points of the game on a bucket by Shamarrhea Young with 6:59 left in the first quarter, the Red Raiders blanked Rockford East the rest of the period while scoring 14 unanswered points. Ali Andrews scored 9 points with a 3-pointer and Kayla Barreto tallied 5 points including a trey as the Red Raiders led by 12 after 8 minutes.

Huntley, which scored the first 6 points of the second quarter to complete a 20-0 run, held the E-Rabs scoreless for 10 minutes and 35 seconds. Rockford East broke the long scoring drought on a layup from Madilyn Hecox to make the score 20-4 with 4:24 remaining before half.

The Red Raiders made sure there wouldn't be an E-Rab comeback by scoring 7 unanswered points, 5 by Andrews including a 3, and a putback from Paige Renkosik. Huntley led 27-4 with 2:45 remaining before halftime.

The Red Raiders' biggest lead was 48, 58-10, on a 10-footer in the lane by Renkosik with 2:44 left in the game.

Andrews, who connected on 8-of-11 shots from the floor and made 2-of-3 from 3-point range, led Huntley with 22 points in less than 3 quarters of play. Baretto, with two 3s, and Renkosik added 10 points each.

"It is exciting to win the regional on our home court," said Renkosik. "We could check off one of our goals tonight. Our defense was really good tonight."

Rockford East made 6-of-30 shots for 20 percent and committed 25 turnovers.