As a four-year varsity player, Huntley senior Kayla Barreto gets it by nature.
Two things:
“We lacked on the defensive end,” Barreto said about the Red Raiders’ three-game losing streak in December at the Montini Tournament. “We weren’t playing as a team. We were playing as individuals.”
That stretch was a wakeup call for Huntley, which had entered the Montini tourney with a 12-0 record.
A week of practices before getting back into action followed as the Red Raiders sought to fix what ailed them. That work paid off.
Huntley (23-3) has responded by winning 11 straight. The Red Raiders await their Class 4A postseason path, which will be unveiled Friday.
“It’s definitely a good way to respond,” Barreto said. “Having those three losses at Montini was definitely a setback, but at least we had them then and not now later in the season. It helped us with a lot of things that we needed to work on.”
Huntley coach Steve Raethz gave the team a couple of days off after the grueling tournament and then got back to the drawing board before the Red Raiders returned to the court against Bartlett on Jan. 5.
The Red Raiders knew they were close. The three losses all came to quality opponents —Hersey, Batavia and Marist — and they were in every game. Still, an adjustment needed to be made.
“I think it was definitely defense,” Barreto said. “As soon as we got back to practice after those losses, (Raethz) definitely changed a lot of things, and I think it’s helped us greatly.”
Only twice in its 11-game win streak has a team scored over 40 points against Huntley, and all but two of the wins were by double digits.
“We learned from it,” Raethz said of the losing streak. “We learned what we needed to do to improve and I think the kids have taken some positive steps.”
Harvest’s path: All the hard work that Harvest Christian put in was rewarded with the top seed in their half of a Class 1A sectional the Lions will host.
Now, Harvest has to live up to it and show that a beefed-up schedule has the Lions ready for a deep postseason run.
They won’t have to stray from home to reach the supersectional for a second straight year. Their first challenge will be the Westminster Christian Regional, with a potential matchup with the Warriors for the third time this season looming. Harvest won the previous two.
Then the Northeastern Athletic Conference champions would host the sectional, where teams like Seton, Hope and Luther North could loom.
“I am extremely excited about our prospects in the postseason,” Harvest coach Rich DeTamble said. “For regionals, we need to go through Westminster, who has played us tough this year. If we clear that hurdle, we stay home for our own sectional.
“Our overall team toughness on defense has really stepped up the last two weeks. We will need that because both Hope and Seton are big, physical teams that try to penetrate.”
The postseason begins Tuesday, Feb. 9 against the winner of the previous day’s matchup between Christian Liberty and Elgin Academy.
Wave ready: The area’s lone Class 2A team, St. Edward, also learned its postseason path Friday.
The Green Wave is the second seed in their half of the Byron Sectional. They are the highest seed at the Wilmington Regional. They open the postseason on Tuesday, Feb. 9 against the winner of the previous day’s game between Wilmington and Reed-Custer.
A showdown with third-seeded Lisle could follow.
Paul Johnson is a freelance writer for The Courier-News.
