Huntley handles Hononegah to win DeKalb sectional

DeKALB - Huntley junior Morgan Clausen dominated in the paint during Thursday night's Class 4A DeKalb sectional final against Hononegah, but stepped outside for one momentum-changing shot.

Clausen's clutch 3-pointer from the corner - her only 3-point attempt of the game - gave Huntley a 30-28 lead with 2:22 left in the third quarter and sparked a 14-2 Red Raiders' run over the next four minutes.

Clausen finished with 16 points and grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds while Ali Andrews added 18 points and 9 rebounds as Huntley claimed its third sectional title in the last four years with a hard-fought 49-38 decision over the youthful Indians.

Huntley (30-3) advances to Monday's Fremd supersectional where they will take on the host Vikings (28-2). The contest will be a rematch of last year's supersectional at Hoffman Estates where Fremd earned a 50-34 victory.

"Morgan made some huge baskets for us down the stretch and really gave us a huge lift," said Red Raiders coach Steve Raethz. "That 3 was huge."

"It was really close throughout the entire game and that shot helped give us some momentum and energy," Clausen said. "Other people knocked down shots from there and it was a great way to finish the quarter."

Hononegah (29-4), which started two freshmen and a sophomore, bottled up Andrews early on with a box-and-1 defense and held a 20-19 halftime edge.

Huntley shot just 5-for-26 in the opening half with starters Kayla Barreto and Paige Renkosik sitting out a large portion of the half in foul trouble.

While the Red Raiders struggled offensively, Alexis Lowitzki and Mallory Moffett provided solid defense off the bench and played a major role in forcing the Indians into 13 first-half turnovers.

"I love how we defended," Raethz said. "We got in some foul trouble early and I had to switch some things up defensively a little bit. I thought our kids did a great job containing them offensively."

The Red Raiders regrouped at the intermission and ripped off the first 6 points of the third as Andrews hit a 15-foot jumper and Clausen added a follow-up hoop and a layup on a nice feed from Lowitzki.

Hononegah responded with an 8-2 spurt before Clausen's trifecta gave Huntley the lead for good. Andrews completed a 3-point play and Renkosik buried a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for a 36-30 lead.

The Red Raiders extended the lead to 41-30 on a Lowitzki 3-pointer and the Indians never got closer than 7 points the rest of the way.

"I knew we had to play so much harder in the second half and I just didn't want the season to end, so I had to play with a little more heart," Lowitski said.

"They played us really tight, so we knew other people had to knock down shots and they did that today," Andrews said.

Freshman Jordan King and junior Meagan Matuska paced the Indians with 9 points each while Ellie Welsh finished with 8 points.

"Huntley's a great defensive team and they took us out of the sets we wanted to run," said Hononegah coach Randy Neibel. "Where they really hurt us was on second chance points. They're big and strong and they just overpowered us a little bit."