Prairie Ridge tops Jacobs for 12th straight win
For the Prairie Ridge boys basketball team, Thursday's 57-38 victory over visiting Jacobs in the unofficial Fox Valley Conference championship game was pure payback.
In a rematch of the 2015 first-place FVC crossover won by Jacobs, the Fox Division champion Wolves forced 16 first-half turnovers to take a 23-12 halftime lead and they led Valley Division champion Jacobs by at least 9 points throughout the second half of the regular-season finale for both teams.
It was a satisfying win for the Wolves, winners of 12 straight. Jacobs ended PR's season in regional play two years ago.
"It's awesome," said Wolves senior guard Payton Otto. "The last two years we played Jacobs we lost both of them and it kind of hurt. But this year we got them."
The game started off as a typical FVC grind with Prairie Ridge (23-3) leading 6-4 after a quarter, but the Wolves used 9 second-quarter turnovers to outscore the Golden Eagles 17-8 in the second quarter.
Jacobs (21-6) managed only 20 shot attempts in the first half due to multiple miscues and made only 6. Junior Cam Krutwig scored all 12 of Jacobs' first-half points on 6-of-11 shooting. He finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
"I thought we were a little bit tentative," Jacobs coach Jim Roberts said. "I didn't think we did a real good job of attacking. The stuff that they do, it's hard to have a real plan and let's go here and let's go there because they fly around and they double and you've got to pass and catch and be aggressive and get by people and attack.
"I thought we were looking sideways. We'd catch and go backward toward half court. We got ourselves in some nonaggressive situations and when you do that, they get deflections they get their hands on a bunch of passes."
Ten seniors saw action for Prairie Ridge on Senior Night. Six Wolves scored between 7 and 12 points, led by senior Christopher Bradshaw's 12 points on the strength of 4-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. Otto, senior guard Logan Card and junior guard Brian Dorn scored 8 points apiece for the Wolves.
Sophomore guard Ryan Phillips splashed three second-half 3-pointers to finish with 9 points for Jacobs, which next plays on Wednesday in a Class 4A South Elgin regional semifinal against the winner of Monday's game between Larkin and Huntley.
"We're going to be fine. We'll be just fine," Roberts said. "(Prairie Ridge) did a great job. Senior night, they had everything rolling and they beat our (tails). We'll be fine and we'll come back on Wednesday."