Cary-Grove finds open man, knocks out Streamwood
Beau knows double teams.
So do his Cary-Grove teammates.
No. 8 Streamwood double teamed Cary-Grove leading scorer Beau Frericks throughout the Class 4A South Elgin regional semifinal on Tuesday, but the savvy junior guard and his teammates exploited the vacated holes in the defense throughout a 63-43 victory.
Two Sabres rushed at Frericks whenever he touched the ball, so the 19-point-per-game scorer let others do damage in the first half.
"I would have to find my opposite guard and they would always have one person open on the bottom," Frericks said. "We just found the guys that weren't being guarded and we took advantage of that."
Streamwood's calculated defensive risk provided opportunities for Cary-Grove 6-foot-8 junior Frank Jakubicek (9 points), 6-5 senior Dave Aulert (6 points), 6-3, 275-pound senior Addison West (4 points) and 6-1 sophomore guard Ryan Weaver, who scored 8 of his 13 points off the bench in the first half to help stake the Trojans to a 33-21 halftime lead.
"They kind of spread out the more we moved the ball," Weaver said. "When we were switching, they had some difficulties doing that, so we just pounded the ball inside to Frank, Dave and Addison."
The Trojans led 47-35 after three quarters, scored the first two buckets of the fourth to open a 16-point lead and cruised into the regional final.
No. 1 Cary-Grove (21-7) advances to the title game on Friday at 7 p.m. against the winner of today's semifinal between No. 3 South Elgin (22-8) and No. 5 Hampshire (15-16).
Cary-Grove defeated South Elgin 70-62 in the opening game of the Jacobs Holiday Tournament on Dec. 22. The Trojans split two Fox Valley Conference games against Hampshire.
"Obviously, those are both very good teams," Jakubicek said. "We feel very confident. We'll have two good days of practice."
"If we play to our best, I don't think anyone can beat us," Frericks said.
The Trojans enjoyed a 37-26 rebounding advantage. They had plenty of opportunities to crash the boards considering Streamwood shot 29 percent from the field (15 of 51).
"They crushed us on the glass," Streamwood coach Kent Payne said. "Offensively, we took a lot of poor shots throughout the game. We took shots we had no chance of making. We just threw them up there. That was the story for us."
Of Jakubicek's 8 rebounds, 5 were offensive. He scored three times on putbacks.
Frericks scored 15 second-half points to finish with a game-best 20.
"We wanted to really contain (Frericks) and thought we were doing a pretty good job of it," Payne said, "but then we didn't rotate very well."
Jakubicek helped limit 6-7 Streamwood senior Keenon Cole to 19 points, 5 below his average. Cole, who scored 33 points the previous night against Jacobs, grabbed 11 rebounds.
Senior forward Nikola Sinik scored 9 points for the Sabres and senior forward Nick Droll finished with 8 points.