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Jacobs heats up in 2nd half, beats Crystal Lake South

It was a short halftime speech from Jacobs boys basketball coach Jim Roberts after his team scored 12 first-half points at Crystal Lake South Saturday night.

Jacobs spent all of three minutes in the locker room before returning to the floor, but not because Roberts was upset. Quite the contrary.

"I thought we did a great job," Roberts said of the first half after his team rallied for a 55-37 victory. "We did a great job of executing, we didn't turn it over, we got great shots. We knew we were going to get outside shots ... there was nothing else to talk about. We were doing everything we wanted to do."

Well, everything but putting the ball in the hole. Jacobs shot 1 of 13 from 3-point range in the first half, 5 of 24 overall.

The law of averages was with the Golden Eagles in the second half, when they shot 13 of 21 from the floor, 3 of 7 from 3-point range.

"We all had the mindset to keep shooting, so we all kept shooting and we had 40 points in the second half," said Jacobs sophomore Ryan Phillips, who sank 3 of 4 attempts from 3-point range in the second half to finish with 14 points. "We lit it up, which is great for us."

Trailing 20-12 at the half, Jacobs (12-3, 3-0) relied on junior Cameron Krutwig to get back in the game. He scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, including 11 in the third quarter to help the Golden Eagles forge a 29-29 tie heading to the final period.

"The middle was wide open. I got a lot of touches in there," said Krutwig, a 6-foot-8 junior forward who had 11 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists and a block. "We worked inside-out. It's easier to shoot inside-out than off the dribble or swinging it around to get a shot."

Jacobs took control of a tied game by opening the fourth quarter on a 14-3 run. Krutwig gave Jacobs the lead when he was fouled and sank 2 free throws. He then scored an inside bucket and followed up defensively by coaxing an airball from CL South 6-foot-9 senior Josh Friesen.

Fouled at the other end, Krutwig sank 2 more free throws to complete a personal 6-0 run that staked Jacobs to a 35-29 lead with 6:39 to play.

"They made more plays to start the fourth quarter than we did," CL South coach Matt LePage said. "Once they did I could see our heads go down and theirs go up."

Zach Geske led the CL South (8-6, 2-1) with 16 points and 6 rebounds, but the Gators shot 14 of 44 from the field (32 percent) and were outrebounded 29-24.

The victory was the 14th straight for Jacobs within the Fox Valley Conference's Valley Division. The defending FVC Valley champs have not lost a division game since Feb. 21, 2014, against Huntley.

More importantly, the win at CL South gives Jacobs 3 road victories in the division.

"With the 3 wins on the road in the FVC, we are very confident moving forward," Phillips said.

"We're in a good spot,"Krutwig added, "but we know that everyone is going to gun for us, obviously. We just have to keep working."

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