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Poor shooting costs Huntley vs. Crystal Lake Central

Huntley boys basketball coach Will Benson knew Crystal Lake Central's 6-foot-9 center Alex Timmerman would be a major issue Friday with the Red Raiders' lack of size.

But after reviewing last year's film Thursday, Benson didn't envision the Raiders' poor shooting to repeat in their 56-44 loss to the Tigers in the teams' Fox Valley Conference opener.

"When they beat us by one last year we were 3-for-24 from three and I'm like, 'man, there's no way we're going to shoot that poorly, again,' " Benson said. "Mike Miller at Hononegah tells me, 'when you shoot well you look good and when you don't make shots you don't look good.' "

It didn't look good for Huntley from the start and the poor shooting continued against Central into this season. It took host Huntley (1-4, 0-1) nearly 3 minutes to drain its first shot. Both teams combined to miss the game's first 11 shots overall and the problems continued on the perimeter for Huntley, which snagged just 4 of its 16 attempts from 3.

The Raiders shot an overall clip of 31 percent as Cory Knipp was the only offensive spark. He drained all four 3s and totaled a game-high 23 points hitting his last 7 shots after missing his first four. Take away Knipp and the Red Raiders shot just 10-for-43.

"The lack of shot-making with this group tonight was a little surprising," Benson said. "Outside of Cory, we didn't really have anybody, we didn't see any shots go in."

As for Timmerman, he took control of the third quarter where the Tigers (2-4, 1-0) pulled away, scoring 7 of his team-high 21 points that also included 10 rebounds. Timmerman did a little bit of everything for Central after the half. He began the third with an old-fashioned 3-point play and after a Knipp 3 to cut Central's lead to 26-22, the junior fueled a 10-2 run over a 3 minute span, finding Evan Cassell twice, once on a backcut and another off a steal for a two-handed slam and an 8-point lead. Will Welder's rebound and coast-to-coast layup capped the run and Central peaked its lead to 19 early in the fourth.

"We just made some adjustments at halftime," said Timmerman, who helped CLC outscore Huntley 18-7 in the quarter. "(We) just set some screens, opened up the middle and that really opened up the scoring for us."

Central finished with a 47 percent clip on 44 shots, shooting 10-for16 in the second half. The Tigers' defense can't be forgotten either, as Huntley's 14 turnovers and Central's 8 blocked shots certainly helped a 4-point halftime lead balloon to almost 20 in the fourth.

"It started with us getting stops on the defensive end and that kind of gave us confidence on the offensive end," Tigers coach Rich Czeslawski said. "Alex is pretty versatile. He can shoot it, he can finish inside, he can pass. He kind of decided to put us on his back offensively but really the run happened because we were playing well defensively."

Seven players for Huntley did score, but Devin Borring was the next highest scorer for the Red Raiders with 5 points. Huntley feverishly rallied and a few Central turnovers led to a 14-4 Raider run late in the fourth. Huntley was down 9 with nearly 2 minutes to go but couldn't get a pair of 3-point attempts to fall.

"We can't get into those holes if we want to win games," Knipp said of the bad start and third quarter lull. "We need to sustain that energy for the entire game. We show highlights but a mature, disciplined team will keep that for the entire game. We need to get to that level."

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