Boys basketball notes: Resurgent McHenry making almost 70% from free-throw line

McHenry boys basketball coach Corky Card has only one critique of his team’s free-throw shooting, and it’s a small one.

“I’ll be honest, we don’t get (to the line) enough,” Card said.

The Warriors boss is pleased with just about everything else with his players’ efforts at the line. McHenry is shooting 68.8% as a team (159 of 231 before Tuesday’s win over Crystal Lake Central).

The Warriors’ prowess at the line has been crucial to their 17-5 record, 7-3 in the Fox Valley Conference, before Friday’s game against host Crystal Lake South (20-2, 11-0.

“I was behind, late getting the job,” said Card, who was hired just a few weeks before school started in August. “So we’ve probably done the least amount of shooting I’ve done with a group of kids. They just really have a good ritual and a really good mind frame. If you get your best kids to the free-throw line, that’s what’s happening.”

Senior guard Marko Visnjevac (81.8%) is again among the area leaders, along with sophomore forward Adam Anwar (81.8%). Two other starters – junior forward Caleb Jett (73.6%) and senior forward Hayden Stone (73.3%) – also are better than 70%, while junior guard Dylan Hurckes (69.0%) just dipped under that mark.

McHenry just had its nine-game winning streak snapped last Saturday in a 43-38 loss to Belvidere North. The Warriors have a shot at reaching 20 wins for the first time since Ken Ludwig’s 1976 team went 25-5.

“Sometimes (as a coach) you just get lucky,” Card said. “These guys are definitely a skilled group of kids. You get your team between 60-65 as a bottom, when you get to 68 you feel pretty comfortable. When your percentage is near that 70 mark it’s a nice weapon to have.”

Card says the emphasis always is on good shot selection and attacking the rim, which he hopes can pay more benefits at the line. The Warriors are averaging 11 free throws per game.

“I’m hoping the last third of the season we can get to that 15-free throw mark per game,” he said.

Getting votes: South had the area’s season-best winning streak snapped by Lake Zurich in the semifinals of Jacobs’ Hinkle Holiday Classic in December. Now, the Gators have won another seven consecutive games since.

When McHenry and South met on Friday, the two teams had one loss in January between them.

South picked up four votes in The Associated Press Class 3A poll this week, coming in three spots outside the top 10. The Gators had a 3 1/2-game lead on McHenry heading into Friday’s game.

Flying high: Johnsburg (10-11, 7-0 KRC) has the area’s second-longest winning streak at four games and leads the Kishwaukee River Conference by 2 1/2 games.

The Skyhawks are doing it with a young group, with three sophomores (Jayce Schmitt, Jarrel Albea and Ashton Stern) playing key roles and a lot of different key players from last season. Albea is a transfer from Zion-Benton.

Johnsburg was led by 1,000-point scorer Dylan Schmidt and a veteran team last year, with four graduated starters. Guard JT Schmitt was the returning starter, while Ben Person and Kyle Patterson also were in the rotation.

“The ball just moves better for us. It’s a little different than last year’s team with Dylan,” Skyhawks coach Mike Toussaint said. “The ball moves well.”

Johnsburg is not afraid to let it fly from behind the 3-point line. The Skyhawks shoot about 33% on 3s and average making 11 per game. A year ago, Johnsburg lost its next-to-last KRC game at Woodstock North for the KRC championship.

“It’s amazing,” JT Schmitt said. “Last year we came up just short and it was terrible. We don’t want to feel like that. We have a two-game lead and we have to keep it.”

Breaking a trend: Huntley started its season with six consecutive wins, then had a remarkable string of 17 consecutive games before recording back-to-back wins again.

In that stretch, the Red Raiders (14-9, 7-4 FVC) only had two two-game losing streaks. The rest of the games were a win followed by a loss. The Raiders beat Cary-Grove on Jan. 19 and Hampshire on Tuesday for a winning streak.

“Down game, bounce-back game,” Huntley coach Collin Kalamatas said after the Raiders beat C-G. “This is a nice step in the right direction. We talked about not living too high after a win and not too low after a loss. Tonight was a good display of emotion.”

Learning to close: Cary-Grove has been in plenty of games this season but has struggled at times to close the deal at the end. That was the case again in a 45-37 loss on Jan. 19 at Huntley.

“We played good enough to be close,” Trojans coach Adam McCloud said. “That’s our big thing right now, trying to find a way to get over the hump. We can play anybody in our league down to the wire, we just haven’t closed out as many times as we would like.

“I have to do better, the kids have to execute better. It’s everybody, it’s not just one guy.”