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Jacobs wakes up, rolls over Crystal Lake South

Newly brought up sophomore Matt Reall might've had the Crystal Lake South boys basketball team primed for a big upset over visiting Jacobs when his 3-pointer late in the second quarter put the Gators ahead by two with all kinds of momentum.

But to Jacobs, which evidently lacked energy in the first half of its 57-43 Fox Valley Conference win over South, viewed that moment as a wake up call.

"That might have been a good thing for us," said Golden Eagles coach Jimmy Roberts, who called for time after Reall's shot. "On the road it's a little bit tougher. No matter how good you are as a team or think you are, the team that brings the most energy is going to have a chance to win the game. And I think they had more energy than us."

After the timeout with 2:07 left it seemed as if Jacobs (22-1, 11-1) had all the energy needed for its eighth straight win. For the next 4 minutes bridging the two halves, Jacobs woke up with a 7-0 run to end the half thanks in part to Cam Krutwig and Cooper Schwartz and a 7-2 to run to start the second half. CLS (9-14, 5-7), which was paced by Matt Meyers' game-high 17 points along with Tyler Haskin's 8 points and Reall's 6, went from being up 23-21 to down 35-25 with 6:07 left in the third quarter.

"They're good defensively but you have to score with them to have a chance," said Gators coach Matt LePage, whose team shot 31.2 percent overall. "We just didn't finish quarters and you have to finish quarters to compete with really good teams."

Krutwig led Jacobs with 16 points, 16 rebounds and 3 blocks while Adam Kale added 11 on three 3-pointers off the bench. Mason Materna finished with 10 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals while Schwartz had 9 points.

But Schwartz was a major catalyst and helped Jacobs look more like itself during that 14-2 run where it attacked as the Eagles do best - in transition. Schwartz scored a quick but deep 3 in the left wing off a sideline inbound pass following a South turnover early in the third that invigorated the Jacobs bench. That was immediately followed up with Nik Balkcom's steal leading to a Krutwig layup to cap the run and give the Eagles a 35-25 advantage. Jacobs totaled 11 points off turnovers all in the second half, 7 coming in the third where South posted just 6 points but 5 turnovers.

"I think we get a lot of our points off transition," Schwartz said. "And I think from there we got that 10-point lead we knew in the back of our minds that if we keep playing with this confidence, keep playing with this fire we'll be able to carry it through the rest of the game."

Jacobs also carried a better field goal percentage in the second half, finishing 9-for-17 in contrast to its 10-for-25 clip in the first half. Kale helped the Eagles hit seven 3s overall thanks to 2 in the fourth.

"People don't know how good of a player (Kale) actually is. (Ajani Rodriguez) is out right now so he kind of stepped up and played some big minutes," said Krutwig, who then turned his attention to Schwartz. "(Cooper) came out made a 3, got a steal and a jump ball and got us fired up after it."

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