High school boys basketball: Jacobs tops Dundee-Crown, wins 3rd consecutive FVC title

ALGONQUIN – Six-foot-nine Jacobs center Cameron Krutwig felt he started slowly in Tuesday’s one-point win over McHenry.

Not so Friday.

Krutwig scored Jacobs’ first eight points in a 53-38 win over Dundee-Crown. A win in the regular-season finale locked up the Golden Eagles’ third consecutive Fox Valley Conference championship.

Krutwig scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Jacobs (26-1, 15-1 FVC).

“I was just trying to look for my shots a little more in the first quarter,” Krutwig said. “Last game, I kind of started off slow. So I just came out and looked for my shot, quick finishes, and that will get my teammates going.”

Jacobs coach Jimmy Roberts thought D-C (4-22, 2-14 FVC) gave Krutwig more room to work with than most teams.

“He gets swarmed so much in our league,” Roberts said. “I thought he actually had a little bit of space. He was able to catch and move a little bit in the post. It was good to see him knock down a couple shots, not just post moves.”

The Eagles jumped out to an 11-point lead in the first quarter. D-C cut that to two midway through the second, thanks in large part to six Jacobs turnovers in that stretch.

Eagles senior forward Mason Materna knocked down a couple of big shots to extend the lead back to nine points by halftime. Materna finished the game with 13 points, all in the first half.

“I mean, it’s senior night,” Materna said. “I was just going to shoot if I was open, and they were falling. It was good to get us rolling like that.”

D-C coach Lance Huber thought his team capitalized on some easy looks in transition in the second quarter, before the Eagles went on their 9-0 run before the break.

“When we don’t turn it over, we usually are OK,” Huber said. “We sometimes dig ourselves a hole and have a hard time getting out of it.”

For D-C, Gabriel Bergeron scored eight points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Jack Orndahl scored seven points, and Brett Buske added six.

Jacobs cruised through the second half.

The senior night festivities included a packed home side of the stands and a strong student section all in gold.

“This might be the most people I’ve ever seen at a game,” Krutwig said. “It was crazy. They did a really good job. I want to thank the community for coming out to the game. [It] made it a special night.”

Jacobs needed the win in order to stand alone atop the FVC. The Eagles won the conference by one game over Prairie Ridge, which handed them their only loss.

Jacobs will open regional play at home Tuesday against either Crystal Lake South or Streamwood. Roberts wanted his team to soak in the conference title before the focus turns to the IHSA state tournament.

“We have such a great group of kids; it’s really a once-in-a-lifetime group,” Roberts said. ”We only lost one game, 15-1 in the league. I don’t care how good or down people say a league is, to go 15-1 against familiar opponents when you’re the target every night, it’s a tremendous accomplishment by our guys.”

UNSUNG HERO

Mason Materna

Jacobs, sr., F

Materna scored 13 points for the Eagles, all in the first half. He made three 3-pointers.

“It feels amazing,” Materna said. “Especially on senior night with this group of guys, you couldn’t ask for better friends than these guys.”

THE NUMBER

26: Jacobs' 26 wins this season are one shy of the school-record 27 reached in both the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons.

AND ANOTHER THING …

Jacobs mixed up the starting lineup on senior night Friday, inserting seniors Jack Nickoley and Adam Kale for juniors Nik Balkcom and Ryan Phillips. The student section brought cardboard big heads with faces of all seven seniors.

AGATE

Jacobs 53, Dundee-Crown 38

Dundee-Crown 8 12 9 8 — 38

Jacobs 18 12 11 12 — 53

DUNDEE-CROWN (38)

Jay 0 2-2 2, Dal Santo 0 2-2 2, Jones 2 0-1 4, Powell 0 2-2 2, Orndahl 3 0-0 7, Bergeron 4 0-0 8, Burns 0 3-4 3, Stec 2 0-0 4, Hairston 0 0-0 0, Buske 3 0-0 6, Landry 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 9-11 38.

3-point goals: 1 (Orndahl 1).

JACOBS (53)

Balkcom 2 2-2 6, Schwartz 0 0-0 0, Krutwig 8 3-4 19, Phillips 2 0-0 5, Materna 5 0-0 13, Mack 0 0-2 0, Rodriguez 1 0-0 2, Murray 0 0-0 0, Nickoley 1 1-4 3, Kale 0 0-1 0, Perry 1 0-0 3, Hogle 0 0-0 0, Volenec 0 2-2 2, Pinsel 0 0-0 0, Collazo 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 8-15 53.

3-point goals: 5 (Materna 3, Phillips 1, Perry 1).