Jacobs handles Streamwood in regional opener

The Streamwood boys basketball team Tuesday learned very quickly what 18 other area teams experienced when playing Jacobs this season.

In a 47-30 win for the Golden Eagles to open up Class 4A regional play in Algonquin, No. 1 seed Jacobs showed the No. 10 Sabres how it beats teams in multiple ways, even when it's an off night shooting.

Despite shooting 39.5 percent on 48 attempted shots, the Golden Eagles (27-1), who set a team record for wins in a season, attacked the paint relentlessly and used their signature defense to get to Friday's regional championship against No. 4 St. Charles North, which was a 69-54 winner over No. 9 Crystal Lake Central in the nightcap.

"Whether we play well offensively or play OK, our defense has been our staple all year and we were really good defensively tonight," said Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts, whose team will go for 3 regional crowns in 4 years Friday. "I just thought defensively we were really good."

And Jacobs was the whole night. Streamwood (8-24) totaled 13 turnovers and was held to 13 points at the half. Also not helping the Sabres was its shot selection, as Streamwood finished with a 26.1 percent clip from the field, sinking just 11 field goals overall.

"Their half-court defense is solid," said Sabres coach Paul Kowalyszyn. "They have everything. They've got shooters, guys who can create. They got a big man down low. And they attacked it."

Attacking the cup was the other way Jacobs offset a sluggish regional semifinal. While senior Cam Krutwig led all scorers with 14 points to go with his 8 rebounds and 5 assists, he missed his first 4 shots and Mason Materna jump-started the Eagles right away with 7 of Jacobs' first 9 points, including two driving layups that set the tone for the night. Jacobs jumped out to a 14-9 first quarter advantage and drove to the hoop for much of the second quarter, expanding its lead to 13 at one point on a Krutwig layup with 2 minutes left in the half.

"It looked like off of ball screens they were staying low and a quick hesitation and cut through the defense worked a couple times and we just kept the ball moving," said Materna, who finished with 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting with 4 assists. "A team like us, it's kind of like pick your poison. Everyone in our starting lineup and guys on the bench we can all put it in the basket so if you want to double team Cam, you're going to leave a guy open and that's just the risk you're going to have to take."

That poison led to 13 layups for Jacobs and 30 points in the paint. Krutwig went scoreless in the first and while he did most of his damage with 6 in the fourth, Nik Balkcom added 7 points and Jacobs only connected on three 3-pointers and distributed its scoring to 6 other players.

"We attacked the rim really well tonight, most of our buckets were in the paint," Krutwig said. "This is the game to get to the game that you want to be at and teams sometimes come out flat in these games."

Sophomore Keenan Cole led Streamwood with 12 points and 6 rebounds. He opened up the game with a trey but Streamwood struggled after the quick start. Brendon Marton added 6 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals and Jason Manalansan chipped in with 5 points.

"They were switching on some down screens and it kind of threw our guys off," Kowalyszyn said. "They just struggled to get into any rhythm offensively."