Editor note: We mistakenly put that Huntley lost, when they indeed won the game. We apologize for the error.
The Huntley boys basketball team steamrolled Valley Division rival Cary-Grove at home on Wednesday night.
In the first quarter, that is.
View a gallery of photos from Tuesday night’s game
The Red Raiders (16-2 overall, 5-0 FVC) allowed just 3 points by the Trojans (4-14, 1-3) in the first quarter, but found themselves playing poorly for most of the next three quarters. Huntley senior Troy Miller led the Raiders with 15 points, while Cary-Grove senior Jake Bianchi had 10 for the Trojans.
Huntley started off strong, with stifling defense and pinpoint shooting from the arc leading an 18-0 run before Cary-Grove finally scored on a field goal with 1:34 remaining in the quarter. Cary-Grove sunk its first field goal of the game as time expired, and the Raiders rode their defense to a 20-3 lead at the end of the quarter.
Huntley began the second quarter playing like it had for much of the first quarter, drawing such seperation that fans began calling for favorite bench player senior Mason Wicks to be put in. Offensively the Raiders began to stall, however, and Cary-Grove scored 6 points in the last 1:30 of the half to take what momentum it could find, going into the half down 9-28.
What had been a large lead for Huntley quickly disappeared, as poor play on both sides of the ball by the Raiders allowed Cary-Grove to outscore them 15-9. Huntley’s offense kept them from falling too far behind, however, and they slid to the end of the quarter leading 39-24.
Cary-Grove silenced the Huntley student section in the fourth quarter, holding the Raiders to 3 points offensively and scoring 8 to pull within 9 late in the quarter. Huntley’s starters all remained on the floor during the quarter, and looked out of it as they turned the ball over several times while missing key field goals on multiple occasions. Huntley held on, however, and ran the clock out to scrape out a win, 41-32.
“I’m really disappointed in our effort and execution,” said Huntley head coach Marty Manning. “We looked absolutely terrible.”
Huntley players stumbled out of the locker room looking both dazed and disappointed. Huntley sophomore sensation Amanze Egekeze, who had an unusally quiet night, was not pleased either.
“We made really stupid mistakes,” said Egekeze. “We just couldn’t handle them at the end.”
Huntley will play at Dundee-Crown on Saturday.
