In a close game in which both teams struggled to score, defense and hustle plays were always going to decide it.

In Sycamore’s 41-33 home win over Winnebago on Wednesday, Cortni Kruizenga had perhaps the biggest hustle play of the night.

Kruizenga blocked out and drew a foul on a Winnebago player on a rebound on the Sycamore end in the final minute with the Spartans (14-9) up three points. On the extra possession, Quinn Carrier hit her fourth and final 3-pointer of the game, pushing the lead to 39-33 with 47 seconds left.

“Yeah, it was great,” Kruizenga said. “It’s always about the little things when it comes to basketball. ... When we’re playing teams as good, if not better than, us, we have to make sure we’re focusing on boxing out, focusing on passing, everything like that. When shots aren’t falling, we know there are other roles we have to take on.”

Both teams struggled shooting throughout the game. The Indians (17-4) shot 31% from the floor and 33% from 3-point range, while the Spartans were 30% from the floor and 32% on 3-pointers.

The turnover bug also plagued the Spartans in the second half, coughing it up 10 times. After Carrier’s 3-pointer, the Indians had two chances to score thanks to Ida Fager’s seventh steal of the game. But both shots missed, Sadie Lang came away with her 12th rebound of the game and the Spartans held on.

Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said the coaching staff emphasizes loose balls and being more active on plays like the one Kruizenga made.

“I thought tonight we were the more aggressive team on 50-50 balls and that’s something we hadn’t been this year,” Wickness said. “I’m happy we put it together and we actually showed what we’re capable of doing.”

Carrier’s 13-point, seven-rebound performance came four days after she became the eighth player in program history to reach the 1,000-point mark.

The junior scored 18 points in a loss to St. Laurence on Monday.

“That was a big goal for me,” Carrier said. “I’ve been working hard and with the help of my team, my coaches and my family, I’ve gotten to where I am. I couldn’t do it without them.”

Despite how close the game was, the Spartans never trailed, and the only tie of the game lasted for 22 seconds when a Callie Countryman free throw broke a 4-4 tie with 4:18 left in the first quarter.

Sycamore’s biggest lead of the first half was 20-12 late in the second quarter, with Grace Amptmann scoring the last five points of an 8-0 run. But the Indians scored the last five points of the quarter, although they had only scored three points in the quarter before that.

“We definitely played very good defense all four quarters,” Carrier said. “That was our emphasis for this game, go all four quarters and play. And that’s what we did.”

Lang hit a 3-pointer at the end of the third quarter to push the lead back to eight, 31-23, but again it grew no bigger. The Spartans struggled to score in the fourth and led 35-33 with 2:13 left after Izzy Nelson hit a jumper right as the shot clock expired, her only points of the game.

After scoring four points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, the Spartans scored six points in the last two minutes to come away with the win.

“You’d get a stop, and you’d come down and you’d make a silly pass,” Wickness said. “We talked about how we have to make our lulls shorter-lived. I thought we did a good job of that tonight.”

Fager finished with 13 points and eight rebounds for the Indians. Alyssa Zambrovitz added 12 points on 4-for-6 shooting on 3-pointers. Avery Brule had six points and seven rebounds.

Lang had 18 points, 12 rebounds and six steals for Sycamore, which is scheduled to host Rochelle on Friday as part of a girls-boys doubleheader.

Kruizenga said the win should help set a blueprint for the rest of the season.

“We knew coming in they were going to be really good,” Kruizenga said. “We knew we had to match their physicality. It’s always great to make a 17-3 team 17-4.”