Trojans Falls Short at Jacobs Holiday Classic

After a poor start on Monday morning against Crystal Lake Central, Cary-Grove looked for a quicker start against Bartlett Tuesday evening in the Jacobs Holiday Classic.

While the Trojans started better and were within one point late in the third quarter, Cary could not get over the hump and fell to the Hawks 72-55.

After falling behind 16-6 in the first quarter, Cary scored seven of the last ten points of the period including a half-court shot by Jon Guay to end the quarter with Cary trailing 19-13.

Cary began to rally in the third quarter, pulling within 43-42 in the final two minutes of the quarter. Bartlett had an answer though, scoring the last nine points of the quarter to take a 52-42 lead into the final quarter of play.

Bartlett added an 9-2 run to start the fourth quarter to put the game away.

Cary coach Ralph Schuetzle said that even though it is a loss, he was happy with the team's performance the last seven quarters of play.

"We were pleased," Schuetzle said. "I think the turning point was when the five-point lead went to ten late in the third quarter. Ten points is a pretty big mountain to climb against them and they had a couple of really nice execution plays where they did score and it got to be too much. We improved a lot and against a team that was far superior to us talent-wise so we feel good."

Nick Richter had 19 points to lead the Trojans, 14 of which were in the first half and said that

"I was trying to get the offense going and we took a lot of quick shots and that's my fault," Richter said. "We got off on a bad start in the fourth quarter."

Richter added that he thought the team played a much better game from the start than on Monday.

"We really started the game off well. I think we played well today, just had a few mental errors at the end of the third and that was our downfall," Richter said.

Schuetzle added that the fact Richter was forcing shots in the second half shows something that the team can work on.

"That's a great example of how we got to be more patient," Schuetzle said. "When we're tired and such but he was able to get by with that in the first half maybe because he wasn't so tired. He was going up to make a play and they would foul him and that was the difference."

Cary-Grove finishes 1-2 in pool play and will face Elk Grove Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the Consolation B bracket.