Ary helps Huntley overtake Jacobs

Huntley, which felt like a victory slipped away against Crystal Lake South on Tuesday, came back and took one away from Jacobs on Friday.

The Red Raiders trailed by seven points early in the fourth quarter, but rallied behind Nate Ary's seven fourth-quarter points to defeat the Golden Eagles, 48-45, in their Fox Valley Conference boys basketball game at the Eagles' Nest.

"It means a lot," Huntley coach Will Benson said. "We bounced back and responded from adversity and showed a lot of toughness. South took it to us in the fourth quarter (for a 59-54 win) and we were able to make some tough plays in the fourth quarter and played a lot smarter tonight."

Huntley (2-2, 2-2 FVC) fell behind 42-35 after Jacobs' Zach Leahy hit two free throws early in the fourth quarter. The Eagles (2-3, 1-3) hit 1 of 11 field goals in the fourth quarter and managed only three more points after that.

"It's definitely a confidence booster," said forward Adam Guazzo, who led the Raiders with 13 points and seven rebounds. "The South loss definitely hurt. Now that we got this one, we got our confidence back, we're working as a team."

Ary hit a short shot with 1:20 to go to give the Raiders a 46-44 lead. Jacobs got three shots on its next possession but could not connect. Huntley beat Jacobs' full-court pressure to get Noah Only a layup with 18 seconds remaining, but the Eagles were not finished.

James Hayes, who ignited a key Jacobs' third-quarter run with three 3-pointers, was fouled with 4.9 remaining and made his first free throw. Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts planned for Hayes to make the second and call timeout.

Hayes missed the second, but it kicked long, he grabbed the rebound and his 3 at the buzzer rolled off the rim.

"I guess I got lucky on the bounce," Hayes said. "It's a shot I could have knocked down. It was a pretty good look. I could have hit Leahy or Rob (Pennel), but I thought I was open and I took it."

Leahy finished with a game-high 15 points, Hayes added 12.

"Our kids should be upset," Roberts said. "They played really hard, they did a good job, but we have four seniors who have been around here a long time and they're not looking for 'You did a good job.'

"We did a really good job for about 3 1/2 quarters. We just couldn't finish it down the stretch."

Huntley had the game's biggest lead, 19-10, in the second quarter before the Eagles closed that gap. Hayes hit three 3s for Jacobs' first nine points of the second half.

"I just came out ready to go in the third quarter," Hayes said. "Ready to knock down shots. They wanted to go under the screen (near the key), so I've been working in the offseason, ready to knock down shots."

Jacobs finished with 10 3s, while Huntley made five, three of which came in the third quarter to keep it close.

"It's tough to win here, no matter what year," Benson said. "Especially with how many 3s they had. We normally don't win games when we get outscored that much on 3s."

Ary scored 12 points for the Raiders, while Only added nine.