Huntley Boys Basketball Wins Regional Championship

For the second year in a row the Huntley boys basketball team has won a Class 4A Regional Championship.  The 26-3 Red Raiders defeated Larkin 46-42 in front of a large home crowd.  Huntley claimed their fourth Regional Championship in 6 years under head coach Marty Manning. 

Huntley started strong and jumped out to a 6-0 lead.  Larkin was only hitting from downtown but they connected on three 3-pointers in the first quarter to stay close at 16-11.  

The Royals opened up the second quarter with another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 2.  Troy Miller hit a 3 pointer of his own late in the second quarter and Jake Brock scored on a layup to give the Raiders a 25-16 lead.  Larkin scored their 5th three of the half to trail by 6 at halftime.  

Huntley never trailed the entire game but the second half turned out to be a lot tougher for them as they turned the ball over twice to open the 3rd quarter and 4 more times to open the 4th.  Despite the early turnovers, Huntley was able to build an 11 point lead in the third and led 36-27 at the end of the quarter.

Larkin's full court pressure forced Huntley into 8 fourth quarter turnovers and most of those led to easy baskets for the Royals.  Larkin tied the game at 41 but around the 4:00 mark, Junior Bryce Only answered with a basket and 30 seconds later Amanze Egekeze added two free throws to give Huntley a 45-42 lead.

Only led Huntley with 13 points and Sophomore Amanze Egekeze had 11 points and 9 rebounds.  Senior Justin Frederick also grabbed 9 rebounds to go along with his 7 points.  Huntley shot just 9 for 17 from the line including going 6 for 12 in the fourth as Larkin made their comeback.

Huntley will face Rockford Auburn on Tuesday, March 6th at 7:30pm in the Dundee-Crown Sectional.  The Knights are 27-2 and ranked 5th in the Associated Press Class 4A polls.