Cary-Grove Wins Third Regional Title in Four Years

After Cary-Grove’s Claire Jakubicek got her second foul 1:22 into Thursday night’s IHSA Class 4A Dundee-Crown Regional final against Streamwood, you would think alarm bells may go off for the Trojans.

The bell did go off for sophomore Joslyn Nicholson, who kept Cary in the game in the first quarter while Jakubicek was on the bench, scoring six of her ten points in that opening quarter.

When Jakubicek did return, the top-seeded Trojans ran away and took home their third regional title in the last four years with a 50-29 win over the No. 2 seed Sabres in Carpentersville. With Jakubicek sitting, Nicholson scored six of the nine points Cary would score in the quarter and took a 9-8 lead into the second quarter.

As the second quarter began, Jakubicek and her younger sister Olivia, who also had two first-quarter fouls, returned to the game and the Trojans went on a 19-0 run holding Streamwood scoreless the first 6:43 of the quarter and led 28-10 at halftime.

Cary (25-3) would add the first eight points of the third quarter to build a 26-point cushion and while Streamwood was able to cut the lead to 15 in the fourth quarter, the Trojans were never threatened.

Paige Lincicum led Cary with 11 points while Nicholson and Olivia Jakubicek each added ten.

Nicholson said she felt no pressure trying to pick up the slack while the Jakubiceks were on the bench in the first quarter.

“I know I have my teammates by me at my side and I didn’t have to worry about getting trapped or anything I did stupid on defense because I knew another teammate would be there,” Nicholson said.

Lincicum said that Nicholson’s early points were very important.

“They were really big, they brought up the intensity of the whole game and wanted us to play more together as a team,” Lincicum said.

Lincicum added that she gives credit to the rest of her team for helping her have the night she did.

“I just think I got a lot of good passes and assists from my teammates,” Lincicum said. “Overall, our fast-breaking helped my points.

Cary coach Rod Saffert said he told his team that teams need to rise above adversity.

“We talked at halftime that if you’re a great team, it can’t matter (who is on the bench),” Saffert said. “Meg (Straumann) went down last year and it can’t matter. You have to be that confident with your bench players and we are.”

Cary advances to the Jacobs Sectional Tuesday night to play Fox Valley Conference rival Huntley at 6 p.m. The Trojans defeated Huntley twice in the regular season this year.