Jacobs stymies Huntley for season sweep

Raider Nation, Huntley's student section, showed up in impressive numbers and enthusiasm for Saturday's Fox Valley Conference matinee against Jacobs.

Unfortunately for those fans, the Golden Eagles lockdown defense didn't give them much to cheer about.

Jacobs held Huntley to 2 field goals and 7 points in the first half and never trailed on the way to a 41-25 victory.

The Golden Eagles (7-13, 5-6) snapped a 4-game losing streak while beating Huntley for a second time.

"(Defense) has really been our focus the last couple days at practice and film sessions," Jacobs coach Joe Benoit said. "Pretty complete game for our kids, I'm proud of that. Our kids are hungry to improve."

Huntley (5-17, 2-8) turned the ball over five tunes in the first quarter. Jacobs also started slowly until Kyra Cabusao sank a 3-point shot from the top of the key for the game's first points with 3:21 left in the quarter.

Courtney Pahl added a 3 in the opening quarter, which ended with Jacobs up 10-3.

"We watched a lot of film," Pahl said. "I think our defense is what really brought us together today. One thing that really helped was our talking, we really communicated well."

Neither team could get much going in the second quarter, Jacobs hitting 2 of 9 shots to Huntley's 1 for 8. The Golden Eagles led 15-7 at halftime.

Jacobs started the second half on a 10-2 run to take a 25-9 lead. Cabusao and Pahl capped the surge with back-to-back 3s.

"We weren't clicking on either end of the floor," Huntley coach Steve Raethz said.

Huntley turned up the pressure defensively and closed the gap. The Red Raiders pulled within 27-19 on Kamai Nwogu's putback to start the fourth quarter.

But the Red Raiders didn't make another shot until Ashley Guazzo's jumper in the final minute. For the game, they shot 17 percent from the field (7 for 41) and made 10 of 18 free throws.

Liz Schwartz was fouled shooting a 3 and sank all three free throws to help Jacobs build its lead back. Benoit was pleased with his team's 13 of 17 free throw shooting.

Schwartz led Jacobs with 12 points, Cabusao scored 10 and Pahl 8.

"We've been working a lot lately on playing a full 32 minutes," Schwartz said. "They are a very good team and we knew we couldn't take any plays off and I think we did a better job of that today."

Huntley, who had been 4-3 since the new year, was led by Madison Wash with 7 points and Raquel Radermacher with 6.

Raethz also was impressed with the student turnout.

"For a Saturday afternoon game I was very pleased with that," Raethz said. "I was very pleased with our kids and their enthusiasm.

"It's something we talked about. We had a great opportunity with a really nice crowd and didn't really play our best today."