Red Raiders Advance to Regional Championship Game

Beating a team three times in one season is a difficult thing to do, especially after beating your opponent by 30 and 22 points in the two previous meetings during the regular season.

Huntley tried to pull off the three-peat Wednesday night against Cary-Grove in the IHSA Class 4A Prairie Ridge Regional semifinals in Crystal Lake. The Red Raiders saw a much-more slowed down approach from the Trojans but were able to outscore Cary 21-4 in the final quarter to advance with a 44-27 victory and win their 11th straight game. Huntley will play McHenry, who beat Crystal Lake South 61-58 in overtime, in Friday night’s regional final at 7:30 p.m.

The two teams didn’t score much in the opening half of play as a 9-1 Huntley run in the first quarter gave the Red Raiders a 12-9 lead after the first eight minutes. Cary held Huntley scoreless the first six minutes of the second quarter while going on a 7-0 run of their own to take a 16-12 lead and led 16-14 at halftime. However in the second half, Huntley began to make the shots they had missed in the first half to tie the game at 23 going into the final quarter and assumed full control of the game in the final quarter of play. Huntley coach Marty Manning said that a key move in the second half turned the tide.

“We were able to pick it up or at least make them force some shots in the fourth quarter, just being able to pressure the ball a little bit more,” Manning said. “I think their game plan was to slow it down and make it a limited-possession game and I thought they did a good job of that for the most part. I thought one of the keys (in changing the tempo) was inserting Amanze (Egekeze) in there in the third and the fourth quarter. I thought his length would be able to block shots and deflect passes. He got an assist, a couple of offensive rebounds, a block and a deflection in there too.”

Troy Miller scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half and said the slowed pace of the game made Huntley try almost too hard.

“They were taking a minute on every possession and that got us in trouble because we were trying to get the ball back and overplay and it wasn‘t working for us,” Miller said. “We came out in the second half and did what we needed to do.”

Tyler Brunschon added 12 points for Huntley. In the regular season, the Red Raiders beat McHenry twice with a 63-56 win on Jan. 22 and a 48-41 win on Feb. 15.