Trojans' Ready for Conference "Championship" Game

It isn’t very often in the Fox Valley Conference to have the opportunity to play a championship-style game at the end of the season for basketball.

This season with the way the schedules laid out, Wednesday night’s girls game between Cary-Grove and Grayslake Central in Grayslake will technically be a conference championship game after the Trojans went 10-0 in the FVC Valley to win the division and the Rams went 12-0 in the FVC Fox to win their division.

The two teams will also come into the game with long winning streaks as Cary (23-3) has won their last ten games and Grayslake Central (24-2) has won their last 22 games with their last loss coming Nov. 23 against Libertyville.

Cary coach Rod Saffert said that the fact the teams both went undefeated in divisional play makes this game even more special.

“The fact that we went 10-0 in conference and they went 12-0 just makes this game cooler,” Saffert said. “Ironically, I just added them at the beginning of the season to the schedule so we’ll see what happens.”

Recently, Cary has found a second scoring option in Meg Straumann, who scored 20 points Saturday afternoon in the Trojans’ win over Jacobs, to go along with the nearly 20 points per game from Claire Jakubicek.

Straumann said that it’s a game the whole team is looking forward to.

“We’re excited,” Straumann said. “It’s a good game to see who would really take our conference so we’re excited about it and it should be a good game.”

While C-G is gathering momentum for a postseason run, this final game of the season can’t be looking past according to Jakubicek.

“I think as a team, we want to concentrate on the game against Grayslake Central and make sure we come out strong that game,” Jakubicek said. “Then make sure we get some good days of practice in and then go into regionals, just wanting to win and being confident in ourselves and playing as a team because that’s what’s important.”

Cary will have their hands full with senior Rebekah Llorens, who has been averaging in double figures scoring all season and along fellow seniors Kat Dickson and Skyler Jessop. Game time is 7 p.m. at Grayslake Central Wednesday night before regional play gets underway for Cary on Feb. 15 at Dundee-Crown.