Jacobs ends skid against Dundee-Crown
The Jacobs girls basketball team finally got a little revenge on its closest rival Wednesday night.
Despite making only 2 field goals in the second half, the Golden Eagles parlayed smothering defense and accurate free throw shooting into a 46-37 win over District 300 rival Dundee-Crown on Breast Cancer Awareness Night in Carpentersville.
Junior Carly Sidor led the way for Jacobs (9-14, 4-5 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division) with 18 points and 5-foot-1 senior Talia Surges added 12 points and a stellar effort running the Jacobs offense as the Golden Eagles ended a 4-game losing streak against D-C dating back to February of 2014.
"Our motivation was that they kicked our butts the last two years. We've been working so hard for this day," said Surges, who led Jacobs' 22 of 34 effort from the free-throw line by making 8 of 8 herself in the fourth quarter.
"Free throws win games," she added. "Every practice, between every drill, we shoot free throws. If we miss we have to run. We're trained to make them."
That the Golden Eagles did, hitting 16 of 20 in the fourth quarter and 21 of 26 in the second half despite shooting just 2-for-13 from the floor.
Sidor added an 8-for-10 effort from the line in the second half including 6 of 8 in the fourth quarter.
After falling behind 7-4 early, the Eagles closed the first quarter on a 5-0 run then scored the first 6 points of the second quarter to open up a 15-7 lead after a basket by senior reserve Mahogany Smith (8 points, 5 rebounds) with 5:19 to play in the first half.
The Chargers (13-16, 4-5) could not get closer than 6 points the rest of the way as Jacobs maintained a 9- to 12-point lead for most of the night.
D-C, which made just 13 of 40 from the floor and 10 of 22 from the line, finally got on track offensively in the fourth quarter but every time the Chargers appeared to have some momentum they sent Jacobs to the line and the Golden Eagles cashed in.
"They've had our number the last couple of years," said Jacobs coach Joe Benoit of the Chargers. "They are so well coached and they always play hard but our kids were plugged in from the start tonight. Our defensive effort got the job done. We boxed out and got some key rebounds late and Talia controlled the game at the point from start to finish. Carly at the line, and Mahogany Smith did a great job off the bench in the post. Overall I'm really pleased with the effort tonight. It was probably our most complete game of the year and it came at a great time."
Senior Melissa Barker led the Chargers with 13 points, all in the fourth quarter. Juniors Paige Gieske and Allison Michalski added 11 and 8 respectively and each had 7 rebounds as D-C did win the boards battle 32-28.
"All the credit to Jacobs," said D-C coach Sarah Miller. "They came out with a game plan and stuck to it. They swarmed us all over the floor and they earned that win."