McHenry pulls together full team effort to beat Huntley in first game without Adam Anwar

MCHENRY – Caleb Jett and his McHenry teammates sat on their bench Wednesday night prepared to face their new reality.

The Warriors’ starting lineup waited in darkness inside McHenry’s gym with a single spotlight leading them down a tunnel of teammates for player introductions.

Once they got to the end of that tunnel, the Warriors found their teammate, junior Adam Anwar, in a black outfit with a cast on his left wrist, waiting to give them a fist bump before their game against Huntley.

[ Photos: Huntley at McHenry boys basketball ]

Jett and his teammates were taken aback to see Anwar, who was now not in the starting lineup for an indefinite amount of time. But the Warriors also didn’t doubt they were ready for this moment.

“We’re all ready to play,” Jett said. “It is hard, but I think we’re handling it pretty well.”

McHenry handled its first test without Anwar well. The Warriors played a complete game with different contributors to beat the Red Raiders 57-45 and stay undefeated in Fox Valley Conference play.

“We’re all good at our different things and we’re kind of flowing into just who we are as a basketball player and what we do for this team, kind of our job,” Jett said. “That’s what’s been shown today.”

The Warriors (14-2, 7-0) played their first game since Anwar, one of the Warriors’ and FVC’s top players, broke his wrist Friday against Prairie Ridge.

McHenry coach Corky Card said Anwar had surgery on the broken wrist and he didn’t have a timeline for when Anwar will return, hoping for some time at the end of the season.

Card and the Warriors used their trademark pressure defense to make the transition to life without Anwar as smooth as possible. After giving up the game’s first basket, McHenry never trailed for the rest of the game, using its zone defense and pressure up and down the court to create 14 Huntley turnovers.

“We kind of just want to make them uncomfortable, give them different looks,” Jett said. “Coach Card was good at scrambling up our defense and our different looks to put them in that stressful position and not really know what to do with the ball.”

McHenry kept a safe distance for much of the first half, leading 23-18 at the half, before turning on the scoring in the second half. Jett scored 12 of his 20 points in the second half while senior Dylan Hurckes scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half.

Senior Marko Stojich added 10 points while eight different Warriors players scored Wednesday.

“We played as good of defense as we’ve played for a while. It’s probably our best rebounding effort and we just moved the ball well on offense,” Card said. “All three phases I was happy with.”

While the Warriors found their groove, the Red Raiders (7-10, 3-4) never found theirs. Senior Christian Wilson led Huntley with 17 points while senior Sheldon Bonsu added seven, but Huntley coach Collin Kalamatas thought his team left too many opportunities on the court.

“There were a lot of times where we were right in position, especially offensively, against their pressure, where we were in the right spots, positionally,” Kalamatas said. “It’s just executing passes. We’re throwing the ball off target, throwing the ball into their hands and not pass faking before passing. There were a lot of little things that went into the lack of execution. They did the opposite. They executed really well on both ends of the floor.”

After playing the top three teams in the FVC, the Red Raiders return to FVC action against Prairie Ridge on Friday. McHenry will play Cary-Grove the same night.

“We’re all ready to play. It is hard, but I think we’re handling it pretty well.”

—  Caleb Jett, McHenry senior

McHenry will try to build off a strong stretch of playing without Anwar as it tries to keep pace atop the FVC. Although the Warriors don’t know how long they’ll be without Anwar, they sent a message Wednesday that they have everything they need to stay on top.

“We have a lot of confidence in everybody here, and I feel like Adam getting hurt didn’t take that confidence away,” Jett said. “I could definitely see how other teams could think that. Tonight proves that we have confidence in ourselves and we don’t necessarily need Adam to be a good team.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/northwest-herald/2025/01/16/mchenry-pulls-together-full-team-effort-to-beat-huntley-in-first-game-without-adam-anwar/