Huntley handles Crystal Lake South in sectional semifinal
DeKALB - Theoretically most coaches believe it's hard to beat an opponent twice, let alone three times in the same season.
But that's exactly what Huntley did in Tuesday's second semifinal of the Class 4A DeKalb girls basketball sectional, however, as the Red Raiders flipped the script on their Fox Valley Conference Valley Division rival.
Crystal Lake South had impressive starts only to have Huntley come on strong for 16 and 14-point victories earlier in the season. A huge second-quarter surge Tuesday put the Red Raiders up by 24 at halftime en route to the final 56-43 triumph.
"In the previous two meetings we dug a little bit of a hole, so getting off to a fast start tonight was a point of emphasis," Huntley coach Steve Raethz. "The most important thing for us was to advance."
The Red Raiders, who elevated the school single-season record for wins for the fourth straight year now at 29-3, aim for a third sectional title in the past four years in Thursday's 7 p.m. championship against Rockton Hononegah, a 68-33 winner over Dundee-Crown in Tuesday's first semi. Huntley defeated Hononegah 43-29 back on Nov. 25 at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving tournament.
"This was almost the opposite of the regular season," South coach Mark Mucha added. "In the previous two we started strong out of the gate and faded. They really came out with intensity and unfortunately for us, we had to play catch up."
A pair of Morgan Clausen assists enabled Huntley standout Ali Andrews to score twice and get a free throw for a 5-0 lead that was the basis of a 15-9 first-quarter lead. Andrews opened the second quarter with a left corner baseline 3-pointer while Laura Schoen was inside the key for her basket.
Unfortunately for the Gators, it would be six minutes before Schoen hit another field goal to account for all of South's second-quarter points. Andrews' trey was followed by 3-pointers by Kayla Barreto and Paige Renkosik to spur a 19-0 run and a commanding 37-13 intermission lead.
"It was a very great first half," Andrews said. "The key was playing as a team, working the ball around and knocking down shots. Our focus was on starting out well, but we didn't quite finish that way. We need to play a whole four quarters."
Nevertheless, the Illinois-bound standout tallied a game-high 27 points leading Huntley's scoring for the 31st time, her 32nd double-figure performance and 25th outing with 20 or more points. Barreto was next with 9 points while Renkosik scored 7 and Madeline Moffett and Clausen added 5 apiece.
"Our defense was great for two and a half quarters. But the free throw shooting was definitely uncharacteristic," Raethz said, noting the contrast between 24-of-26 in the regional final versus 6-of-17 Tuesday. "Give South credit, they didn't give in, got some steals and fought back. We know we'll see that kind of pressure from Hononegah's press."
The school record appeared to catch most players by surprise, but was certainly welcome.
"That's great for the program because winning is what the program is about," Renkosik said. "However our focus is simply on the next game and not letting this season end."
South did outscore the Raiders 13-12 in the third quarter, yet still trailed 49-26, and finished with a 17-7 fourth-quarter edge.
"You go in down 23 it's easy to hang it up but we certainly didn't do that," Mucha said. "This is a pretty tough area in girls basketball and not having a sectional plaque is nothing to be ashamed of. My main goal is to get their team picture on the wall, you do that by being a conference champion or a regional champion, and we did that."
Actually South's final 23-10 record was an encore to last year's 22 victories which also ended with a sectional semifinal loss to Huntley.
"The first half definitely didn't go our way and (Huntley) shot lights out from the get go," South's Chanel Fanter acknowledged. "But most people never expected us to get back tot his point and I know from our first game to now, we left it all on the court. The others on this team, from starters to each reserve, made this season both fun and amazing."
The St. Xavier-bound Fanter led the Gators with 15 points while Taylor Jozefowicz, Annika Sevick and Schoen scored 8 each.