Quinn Carrier goes for 19 as Sycamore tops Rochelle in I-8 opener

SYCAMORE – The 3s weren’t falling for Quinn Carrier.

The head fake, however, was very much working for the Sycamore sophomore combo guard.

Carrier finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and six steals as the Spartans opened Interstate 8 play with a 57-40 win over Rochelle on Friday night.

“I think after I missed those I had to keep driving to get those points on the board,” said Carrier, who was 0 for 10 on 3-pointers. “It ended up impacting the game, I could get my teammates going, it all worked out.”

Carrier missed eight 3s in the first half, but the Spartans (3-4 overall, 1-0) led the Hubs 30-23 at the break.

Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said he told Carrier that if the 3s weren’t falling, she could still drive to the hoop because she was doing well at the rim Friday. That continued in the second half, when she made four of her last five 2-point shots of the game.

Wickness said, though, he always has faith in his shooters to shoot.

“I tell them all the time, ‘Hey, next one is going in. Next one is going in,’” Wickness said. “I’ve done that with every girl I’ve coached that’s been a good shooter. Next one’s going in. ... You have to have that mentality, that belief in yourself that you’re going to make that next one.”

Sadie Lang had kind of the opposite night as Carrier in her 17-point, five-rebound, three-steal performance. The freshman missed four 2-point shots but was 4 for 10 from beyond the arc.

Grace Amptmann finished with nine for the Spartans, including a key 3-pointer after the Hubs (4-3, 0-1) cut the deficit to 23-19 in the second quarter. That started a 7-1 run for Sycamore - a run that also included a layup by Amptmann.

Lang and Carrier combined to score the first 16 points for Sycamore. Both Carrier and Wickness said seeing Amptmann kick off a pivotal run is very important for the Spartans.

“Every good team has more than one or two kids that can score,” Wickness said. “And we want to be a good team. And that’s what our goal is. We’ve talked about it since last summer being a threat when you’re on the court. We talked about making sure your name is not in the scouting report as ‘You don’t have to worry about her.‘”

Rochelle scored seven of the first 10 points in the game, but a 13-4 run by the Spartans put them ahead 16-11. They’d never trail again.

The Spartans had lost three straight games, all by at least 20 points.

“We’ve had a couple hard games so this was definitely a good win for it,” Carrier said. “We needed it to get ourselves going.”

The next two games for the Spartans are also conference matchups with road trips to La Salle-Peru on Tuesday and Kaneland on Friday.

As the defending champs, Wickness said he was glad the young Spartans opened up with a win in the I-8.

“When you win five conference championships in a row, you’ve got a target on your back,” Wickness said. “When teams see you have a younger team or an inexperienced team, they are going to give you everything they’ve got. I think you saw that today.”