Huntley’s entire season was mirrored in Thursday night’s loss in the Dekalb 4A Regional Championship to the Dekalb Lady Barbs.
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After starting this season with an 8-3 record carried by consistent basketball, Huntley began to fall apart, just like it did against Dekalb.
“I think that there were stretches where we played some very good basketball and other times where we had some inconsistencies,” said Huntley coach Steve Raethz.
Huntley came out hot in the first quarter, grabbing a 7-0 lead midway through. However, Dekalb answered back with eight unanswered points, which eventually gave the Lady Barbs a two-point lead to end the period.
However, one thing that both teams did show early was intensity. An effect of that was a knee injury to Huntley’s senior guard Kayla Linthicum with just over a minute left in the first quarter.
“We came out really strong on both ends of the floor,” said Raethz. “I don’t question the effort tonight, I think our girls played extremely hard and came in with the mindset to win the game.”
Dekalb rode its momentum into the second quarter and took a 26-19 lead going into the half. Countless transition baskets as well as three-pointers allowed the Lady Barbs to hang on and win the regional title by a final score of 55-40.
“Every time that we made a run on them,” said Raethz, “they seemed to be able to respond in some way off of a drive down the lane, or an open three, or a put-back.”
Dekalb demonstrated its well-balanced offense in the game with its starters scoring 6, 8, 9, 10, and 16 points. Huntley’s offense was lead by junior guard Haley Ream and sophomore forward Sam Andrews who both finished the game with 14 points apiece.
“It was a disappointing finish,” said Raethz. “I wish we could’ve pulled this one out tonight, but credit to Dekalb.”
Huntley finished the season with a record of 13-14 and its regional final was its fifth in six seasons. Andrews finished the season as the team leader in points per game, averaging with just fewer than 15. Senior forward Abbey Shaw ended the season in second on the team with just more than 8 points per game. Ream finished with seven, while she also lead the team in rebounds, assists, and steals.
Raethz is proud that his teams have carried themselves to that point and he looks forward to next season.
“We’ve got a good nucleus coming back with Sam and Haley,” said Raethz. “We need them to step up their game and contribute as well as newcomers, so that’s what the summer and the offseason is for.”