Jacobs tops Dundee-Crown to clinch FVC Valley outright

Graduating four seniors from last season's undefeated Fox Valley Conference Valley Division champion it seemed that Jacobs' boys basketball team wouldn't have enough talent to repeat as Valley champs.

The youthful Golden Eagles defied the odds.

Winning their 20th straight division game, the Eagles clinched outright their second consecutive crown with a hard-fought 49-42 win over District 300 rival Dundee-Crown in Carpentersville Friday night.

"Really Cam (Krutwig) was the only player back with significant playing time," said Jacobs coach Jim Roberts. "Even with such a young team we expected to be a good team. It wasn't easy winning the conference. Dundee-Crown hasn't won a lot of games over the last two years but they always play us hard."

The Golden Eagles (19-5, 9-0), catapulted by a 3-pointer from Kyle Ross and a 12-footer in the lane from Ryan Phillips, scored the first 7 points of the game to take a 7-0 lead with 6:12 left in the first quarter.

The Chargers (1-21, 0-9) didn't panic and were able to climb within 5 of the Eagles at halftime, 23-18.

D-C grabbed its only advantage of the game 26-25 on a layup by Nick Shydlowski with 3:22 left in the third.

Covering parts of the third and fourth quarters, Jacobs seized control of the game with a 12-2 surge, A layup by Ross with 4:46 left in the game gave the Eagles a 9-point 37-28 lead. Jacobs, which converted 12-of-16 free throws in the fourth quarter, grabbed its biggest lead of the game at 46-35 on a putback by Krutwig with 2:22 left.

Ross, with two 3-pointers and 6 assists, paced the Eagles with 13 points.

"Everybody on this team had winning the conference on their goal sheets for this season," said Ross. "Even though we lost a lot of very good players from last season we knew we had enough talent to repeat as conference champs."

Krutwig, connecting on 7-of-8 from the line, added 11 points with 12 rebounds.

D-C, hindered by 22 turnovers, was led by Gabriel Bergeron with 16 points and 7 rebounds.

"Jacobs is a very good team," said D-C coach Lance Huber. "They have a Division I stud (Krutwig) and a lot of kids who play hard. They are a team with a very high skill level who shoots the ball very well. We did some very good things tonight. Our Achilles heal tonight and all season has been our turnovers."