Jacobs edges Dundee-Crown

It was bad enough Jacobs guard Kyra Cabusao came into a big rivalry game Friday against Dundee-Crown having to play through a cold.

But forced to watch the last 1:57 from the bench after fouling out with a game-high 22 points and Jacobs nursing a 2-point lead was even worse.

"It was a tough because they're a good team, we're a good team," Cabusao said. "There was some regret but then there was no regret at the end when the buzzer beeped."

There sure wasn't after her teammates, who were carried by Cabusao throughout, finished the job and held onto a 43-42 win over the Chargers in a Fox Valley Conference girls basketball battle where Jacobs (6-9, 4-3) led by as many as 13 in the first half, 8 to start the fourth and had to defend court in the final seconds.

"You always have to play through the final buzzer," said Jacobs coach Joe Benoit, whose team survived a miss in the waning seconds by D-C to secure victory. "It was just stop after stop after stop and our kids had just enough in the tank to finish it at the end."

Dundee-Crown (10-7, 5-3), which didn't shoot well with a 30.9 percent clip on 13 made field goals, rallied in the fourth behind good defensive pressure and had a chance to mount an incredible comeback after securing possession on Katelyn Skibinski's steal with 50.7 left.

But after calling 3 timeouts in the final 50 seconds - the last coming with 6.6 left, Skibinski's shot near the right block with 5 seconds left hit the glass and caught the side of the rim. D-C did secure a jump ball with 0.4 left after a scramble but couldn't get a shot off to the relief of the Golden Eagles, who never trailed.

"It was a nice win for us, I felt like we grew up tonight," Benoit said of his youthful squad made up of five sophomores. "We've had some tough games where we didn't finish. We played Bartlett tough, same with Glenbard North and I thought we needed another game where our kids were able to get over that hump and kept their focus late. Their mental toughness was really good in that fourth quarter."

Jacobs survived despite 5 turnovers (14 total) in the final 8 minutes and scoring just 4 points. Besides Cabusao's layup to put Jacobs up 6 with 4:55 left, only Kerri Healy (8 points, 5 rebounds) scored, so it was imperative to get stops down the stretch.

"We were definitely thinking no fouls because they were in the double bonus," Healy said. "We didn't want to put them on the line in that situation and we were focusing on being solid and getting the rebound."

D-C, led by Alyssa Crenshaw's 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals and Skibinski's 11 points and 3 assists, made 9 free throws in the fourth quarter and outscored the Golden Eagles 11-4. The Chargers, still without injured senior center Maddie Tripp, came out firing in the third and edged Jacobs 25-16 in the second half, but a poor first half set the tone.

Jacobs scored at will at the rim in the first half with Cabusao and company converting 8 layups and 11 overall for 26 points overall in the paint. Elizabeth Schwartz (8 points) easily found the cup 3 times in the first quarter and Cabusao powered through for two straight layups and a 16-4 lead with 5:10 left in the second.

Her 3-point play with 2:42 left put Jacobs up 22-9 as the Golden Eagles went 47.6 from the field and 42.1 percent overall. Cabusao got to the rim on all of her shots but one, a 3 in the third quarter.

"I was just going as hard as I (could)," said Cabusao, who scored the game's first points attacking the hoop. "Was just trying to pound it inside, doing whatever I (could) to help out the team."