Jacobsen gives Palatine a jolt in win against Jacobs

Senior Anja Jacobsen missed the first three games for Palatine's girls basketball team while playing soccer in a college showcase event.

She sure put on a show on the basketball floor Tuesday night.

Enjoying the longest stint of her varsity career (she saw a few minutes off the bench last winter), Jacobsen tossed home a game-high 19 points with five 3-pointers as Palatine posted a 47-23 triumph over Jacobs in the final round of the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving tournament.

Just five days earlier, senior Jenny Myslinski connected for seven 3-pointers in the Pirates' season-opener against Crystal Lake South.

"We practice 3-pointers a lot," Jacobsen said. "We have a lot of other good shooters so we are always prepared. We had 16 practices before our first game (last Friday) so we were able to work the ball and work on our shooting. This was real fun, a good start to our season."

The Pirates finished the tourney at 4-0.

"I couldn't for anything better," said Pirates coach Mark Johnson.

He also couldn't have asked for anything better from Jacobsen in her first extended varsity appearance.

"I'm so happy for Anja," he said. "Anja and I had a real good conversation at end of the last season. Anja had a great summer and worked so hard. I'm just so glad she had a great game in her first game out here. It was fantastic to watch.

"She didn't get a lot of minutes last year but was a key person, working her tail off in practice and doing a lot of good stuff for us. She just didn't get a lot of minutes but now to see her get the reward of her having a super game which was phenomenal."

A 3-point play by senior Kerri Healy put the Golden Eagles ahead 5-2 but the Pirates answered with a 10-foot baseline jumper from Grace Seiffert and fastbreak layup by Kendra Lindell (8 points) to take the lead for good at 6-5.

Lindell followed with her first of two 3-pointers to stretch the lead to 9-5.

Jacobsen then got the hot hand, hitting her first 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Pirates a 12-8 lead.

She hit two more in the first five minutes of the second quarter, the second putting Palatine on top 21-8.

Jacobsen had back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the third quarter which extended the advantage to 36-15.

"They really shot the ball well from the outside which obviously hurt us a ton," said Jacobs coach Joe Benoit, whose team finished the tourney at 1-3. "And once they started shooting the ball, we struggled with some of our rotations. They're fixable things. We've got a young group."

Healy led Jacobs with 9 points while sophomore Elizabeth Schwartz chipped in 6.

"I thought Kerri brought good energy," Benoit added. "Liz Schwartz did a nice job and Klaesyn Sibless (junior who had 4 points in the second half) getting a start today in the post was huge.

"I thought our kids were kind of shuffled around and took on different roles than they normally have. But they didn't back down from the challenge. It was a good learning experience and now it's time to get back to work in the morning and get better."

Tiana Henderson (6 points) had some key baskets for Palatine while teammates Kacie Filian, who ran the offense, Sydney Rzepka, Amanda Stanczuk, Sarah Jasonowicz each had 1 basket.

"Palatine is so well coached," Benoit said. "You can tell those kids have been playing together for years.

This tournament is such a good learning experience for us, and going against good teams like Palatine is only going to make us better.

"We love coming here. It's a great opportunity for our kids. I'm really proud of how we how we responded. We didn't win but our kids took it as a good learning experience. I think they're going to be just fine."

Johnson also said the Pirates enjoy playing in Carpentersville each fall.

"I love what Dundee-Crown does with this tournament," he said. "We play teams that we don't normally see. So it's good to have different teams in the mix and we played some good basketball here.

"Now we have to keep it going because the Mid-Suburban League schedule is difficult so we want to get ready for that."