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Phillips' hot hand powers Jacobs past New Trier

Jacobs guard Ryan Phillips laid waste to New Trier's defensive game plan in a 63-49 victory at the War on the Shore Shootout in Evanston Saturday.

Facing Jacobs (18-1) at the event for the second straight season, New Trier (10-9) attempted to contain Loyola-bound, 6-foot-9 senior Cameron Krutwig in the first half with a combination of 2-3 and 1-3-1 zone defenses.

It worked to a degree. Krutwig did not score in the first quarter. That's because the scheme left Phillips open repeatedly and he burned the Trevians every time.

The 6-foot-3 junior made all 7 first-quarter shots he attempted, including a pair of 3-pointers. Jacobs led 16-14 after a period, thanks to 16 points from Phillips, who went on to lead all scorers with 23.

"Our biggest thing for the zone was to find the middle," Phillips said. "My guys found me and I turned around and no one was there because they were all focused on Cam so much. So I just had a 10-foot jumper and, fortunately, they went in."

"I was happy for him to come out the way that he did in this type of environment," Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts said. "So many people outside our area, they know Cam but they don't really know our other guys and Ryan's a really, really good player."

It wasn't just Phillips doing damage. Junior guard Nikolas Balkcom scored 6 points in the second quarter via two 3-pointers to help the Golden Eagles to a 31-24 halftime lead.

When New Trier switched to a triangle-and-two defense in the third quarter to limit Phillips and Krutwig, senior guard Cooper Schwartz scored all 8 of his points to stake Jacobs to a 49-37 lead heading to the final period.

After a sluggish start against a New Trier zone defense that featured 6-foot-9 and 6-8 forwards, Krutwig scored 11 points in the middle quarters and finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds, near his averages of 16.2 ppg and 14.2 rpg.

"I thought we did a pretty good job on the big kid," said New Trier coach Scott Fricke, whose team graduated four of the five starters that defeated Jacobs last season 47-31. "Where he hurt us was offensive rebounds and that's where we thought he was going to hurt us."

Jacobs won the rebounding battle 37-21 and shot 51 percent from the field (24 of 47), including 7 of 18 from 3-point range.

Defensively, the Golden Eagles limited the Trevians to 39 percent shooting (20 of 51). Sophomore Spencer Boehm led New Trier with 11 points and sophomore Ciaran Brayboy had 7 points. Krutwig outrebounded New Trier's two bigs 14-11.

It was the final nonconference game for Jacobs, which finishes the regular season with 8 Fox Valley Conference games, 5 on the road.

"It was great to get a win and it was great to win last week (against Hillcrest), but I'm little bit sad because this is fun," Roberts said of consecutive weekend shootout appearances. "These are teams we compete against all summer. We've done it for four years and we're familiar with these teams and they know us. We like to come out and play in these big-time events and big-time environments. Nothing against the teams in our area. It's just these are great events to be a part of."

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