It might not always show up on the stat sheet, but Huntley senior Kayla Barreto gave an indication of her importance to the Red Raiders on Wednesday.
The 5-foot-4 point guard picked up her second foul at the 5:25 mark of the first quarter, relegating her to the bench for the rest of the half. The four-year varsity player watched her team commit 10 turnovers and trail by four at halftime.
In the third quarter, however, Barreto made her presence felt. She scored all 11 of her points in the second half in helping Huntley to a 60-46 Fox Valley Valley victory over host Crystal Lake South.
It was the Red Raiders’ 10th straight win, and 29th straight in the conference.
“Having those two fouls definitely sets us back,” Barreto said. “I knew coming out that I had to knock some shots down with them being on (Illinois-bound Ali Andrews) like glue.”
Crystal Lake South (17-7, 5-2) led 28-24 at halftime. The Gators set the tone by hitting nine of their first 10 shots. They pushed the lead to 33-25 in the third quarter before Barreto got going.
Barreto sparked a 16-3 spurt by scoring seven of the points. She also sank a 3-pointer to end the third quarter and give Huntley (22-3, 7-0) a 44-40 lead.
“Kayla did a great job of knocking down some big shots there that really opened things up,” Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. “It was one of those situations where she picked up those two fouls early and that took us out of sync a little bit.
“She’s a good ball-handler and she does a good job of running things. It was nice to see her respond in the second half after not seeing too many minutes (in the first half) and really give us a huge lift.”
With Barreto back in the game, the differences weren’t just in scoring. The Red Raiders turned the ball over only once in the third quarter and forced 15 turnovers in the second half.
“We knew we were kind of lax on the defensive end,” Barreto said. “We knew we had to come out and pressure them. We wanted to speed them up a little bit, get them out of their comfort zone. I thought we did that. We sped up the game. That was definitely in the game plan.”
Despite the usual attention, Andrews still led all scorers with 22 points. She added eight rebounds, six steals, two assists and two blocks. Morgan Clausen scored 17 points with eight rebounds.
Huntley plays host to Crystal Lake South next Wednesday. The Red Raiders anticipate another close one.
“They played a great game,” Raethz said. “They played us extremely tough and we’ll expect the same when we see them in less than a week. It will be another tough game.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance writer for The Courier-News.
