Huntley tops FVC foe Dundee-Crown
Uchenna Egekeze and Ryan Sroka are Huntley's known commodities, but it was the contributions of their lesser-known teammates that helped the Red Raiders beat Fox Valley Conference foe Dundee-Crown during Saturday's consolation game in the 92nd Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic.
Deadlocked at 27-27 at the half, the Red Raiders pulled away in the third quarter to win 55-47.
Dundee Crown (6-5) will finish tournament play on Monday afternoon against Yorkville while Huntley (7-3) will play in the fifth-place game against Hononegah following the Chargers-Foxes clash.
"(Ryan) Sroka can shoot and Uchenna (Egekeze) is great, but we had a bunch of other guys contribute," Red Raiders coach Will Benson said. "Ryan Crosby hit 3-of-3 threes, Ryan Vrugt hit a three, Ben Ahmer hit 3 threes, Niko (Mendoza) hit a three, and Nico does so many little things. He sets great screens. It's a total team effort when you talk about getting different contributions from different guys. That's good to see."
The Chargers led 33-29 after Ryan Hodor's 3-pointer with 6:39 left in the third quarter, but the Red Raiders answered with a 17-3 run to close the quarter.
"They made some shots, some two-pointers, and we just couldn't quite keep the pace and put enough pressure on them," Chargers coach Lance Huber said. "I think we had a couple turnovers during that stretch and they got up eight or 10 and that's hard for us to chase. They do a great job with their defense and Will (Benson) does a great job. I'm just glad they didn't slam us."
The tough chore of bouncing back from a heartbreaking loss to Oswego was a daunting task for Dundee-Crown, but the Chargers battled hard, trailing by 12 in the first half before drawing even at halftime.
"It was a tough battle and we kind of play each other a lot so I was disappointed we had to play them," Huber said. "And with the way we played (on Friday). We played really well for 30 minutes and then it kind of exploded on us. I thought we had a lot of character in responding back and hopefully we can use that as a positive moving forward."
After Justin Prusko split a pair of free throws with 4:08 left in the third quarter to pull the Chargers within 38-36, the Red Raiders answered with 3-pointers from Crosby and Ahmer, followed by a pull-up jumper by Ahmer for a 46-38 lead.
"Mostly it's been our top two guys - Sroka and Uchenna - but today I felt since they were in that 1-3-1 (defense) that we could get everyone going," Ahmer said. "I like my role right now of coming off the bench and giving some energy and getting some shots."
Huntley knocked down 11-of-24 three-pointers. Sroka led the way with 13 points, Ahmer had 11, Crosby had nine points and Egekeze had eight points and rebounds.
Douglas Miller Jr. was the lone Dundee-Crown player in double figures with 10 points. Kyle Huber added eight points while Trayvon Hatcher, Prusko and Hodor each scored seven points.