Trojans Win Sixth Straight Conference Game

With a game against state-ranked Hersey looming on Saturday afternoon at home, Cary-Grove’s girls’ basketball team had to be careful not to overlook Fox Valley Conference Valley Division rival Dundee-Crown Tuesday night as the second half of divisional play got underway.

The Trojans certainly didn’t look past the Chargers, opening up a 27-point lead in the first half and cruising to a 57-32 win over D-C in Carpentersville.

Cary (18-3, 6-0) began quickly, starting the game by scoring 18 of the first 22 points of the contest.  Cary continued the onslaught in the second quarter, scoring the 14 points while holding Dundee-Crown scoreless for the first 4:51 of the quarter to take a 35-8 lead.

However, the Chargers would not quit late in the half as D-C went on a 13-1 run the final three minutes to pull back within 15 at 36-21 going into halftime.

Cary would finish D-C off with a 9-2 run to end the third quarter to go up 51-27 and had no trouble getting the road win.

Trojans coach Rod Saffert said that there wasn’t much worry about the late first-half run by Dundee-Crown but it’s something that needed to be addressed.

“We weren’t loud about it at halftime but it’s unacceptable with our standards,” Saffert said.

Claire Jakubicek scored 19 points to lead Cary as the Trojans had a very even scoring night otherwise with five other players scoring either six or eight points and Saffert added that it is something that has to continue to avoid having the team being looked at as a one-person operation.

“I want them to all believe they can score because that makes you a much more deadly team,” Saffert said. “We got to have five girls who want to score all the time and that was nice to see.”

Cary played without Olivia Jakubicek, who Saffert said had some ankle pain which will be getting x-rayed to be sure there is no major damage but hopefully will be ready to play on Saturday. With Jakubicek out, it allowed sophomore Joslyn Nicholson to start and Nicholson said that it was a great chance for her to show what she can do.

“I really thought it was a good opportunity for me because it made me pick up the game a little bit more and want to work real hard,” Nicholson said. “Even though Olivia is out, you have to play like she is still there and we just got to keep it up.”

Cary’s next game is the aforementioned matchup with Hersey at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Elroy Fitzgerald Gymnasium.