Jacobs rallies from 15 down, beats McHenry

Jacobs struggled through a rough first quarter where not much went right and it faced a 13-point deficit to McHenry.

But Golden Eagles coach Jimmy Roberts did not raise his voice, he chose a simpler approach.

"If you're going to be OK, our guys had to figure it out," Roberts said. "They kind of took care of it. They're good."

Through the rest of the game, the Eagles were better than good. Jacobs, a one-win team playing without leading scorer Jackson Martucci, rallied to tie the score by halftime, then rode the hot 3-point shooting of Brett Schlicker in the second half to a 52-44 victory in Fox Valley Conference boys basketball action Wednesday night.

"We just played as a team. We came out, we played confident and we just got the looks we wanted and started hitting shots," said Jacobs forward Treval Howard, who tied Schlicker for team-high with 15 points. "We had to step it up on defense and start executing on offense. We just took that and went with it."

Howard sparked the Eagles (2-6, 1-2 FVC) early with his inside game. He scored 13 of his 15 in the first half.

Schlicker scored all his points on five second-half 3s. His four 3s in the third quarter accounted for all of Jacobs' scoring.

"In the locker room, my coaches and teammates kept telling me to keep going, keep going," said Schlicker, who made one of his first eight shots. "They were able to get downhill and kick to me and I was able to finally hit some.

"Just pass, cut, penetration and get the ball to the middle and then they would contract and we had easy kickouts to hit some shots. We played some defense too."

Schlicker made four of his next six 3s. McHenry (5-3, 1-2) pulled ahead 37-32 on Hayden Stone's 3 with 2:40 to go in the third, but Schlicker closed the quarter with three 3s in the final 2:12.

"With him and Jackson, those guys have to shoot," Roberts said. "Every time they get a look, it's got to go up. With Jackson out, Ben Jurzak needs to get more shots up, but Brett's that guy for us. He knows. You can see his mentality. If he misses, he has to keep getting them up and he can really shoot it."

McHenry opened strong, hitting 10 of 16 field goals in the first quarter for a 23-10 lead. The Warriors scored the first bucket of the second quarter for their biggest lead at 25-10, but things proceeded to get much tougher after that.

"Credit Jacobs defense for that," Warriors coach Chris Madson said. "They seemed to get every loose ball and rebound around the rim. We struggle to score when we don't guard very well. When it comes to scoring, our defense really kick-starts our scoring.

"In the first quarter, we probably forced five or six turnovers and we played loose and played fast. For whatever reason we got complacent. You'd think jumping out to that lead, you'd have momentum and guard harder. That's the confusing part about our squad."

Zack Maness led McHenry with 14 points, while Stone added 13, with nine rebounds and three blocked shots.

Jurzak scored 10 points for the Eagles and Carter Roper added six on his two 3s. Seven of Jacobs' eight second-half field goals were 3s. After Schlicker closed the third with three 3s, Roper started the fourth with another and Jurzak hit one with 4:34 remaining, completing a 16-0 run that gave the Eagles a 48-37 advantage.

"It was hard work, but we had to persevere," Schlicker said. "We have to do everything we can for Jackson."