Girls basketball: Faith Feuerbach’s late layup gives Sycamore 14th straight win against DeKalb

DeKalb Sycamore during the First National Challenge Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, at The Convocation Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.

DeKALB – In a span of less than three minutes in the fourth quarter, the DeKalb girls basketball team battled back from seven down to tie the score against Sycamore on Friday at the NIU Convocation Center.

But that tie lasted for all of about 10 seconds as Faith Feuerbach drove to the lane for her 20th and 21st points of the game with less than a minute left, and DeKalb never scored again in a 56-51 win for the Spartans in their annual rivalry game.

“I love this Convo game. It’s so fun,” said the Sycamore senior, who helped the Spartans to their 14th straight win against DeKalb. “It’s always nice winning because it’s the big rivalry. It means a lot.”

Aside from a brief stretch of the first quarter, the Spartans (23-0) led the whole game but never built the lead past 10. Feuerbach hit a 3-pointer with 3:55 left to push the Sycamore lead to 50-43, but the Barbs (13-10) scored the next seven, capped by a layup by Amina Gray with 1:02 left.

Gray finished the game with 30 points and nine rebounds in the loss. She was 17 for 19 from the free-throw line, getting inside and drawing fouls consistently throughout the game.

“Gray played awesome,” Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said. “She did a great job of initiating contact. I didn’t agree with every call but that’s going to happen. Credit to her, she got to the free-throw line. ... She did a really good job of getting to the free-throw line. We preach to our players all the time you play how the game is being called, and that’s a classic example of a very headsy player going after our defense.”

DeKalb coach Mark Sykes said Gray was extremely confident in the Barbs’ transition game.

“She stayed mentally focused, and we thought when she got to the open floor she could get the ball to the basket,” Sykes said. “She was 17 of 19 from the free-throw line. That’s a lot of confidence. That kid has just continued to grow from last year to this year with the support of her teammates.”

After the bucket to tie the game at 51, the Spartans bolted down the court, with Feuerbach driving to put the Spartans up 53-51.

The Barbs turned the ball over at the other end, then Lexi Carlsen hit a pair of free throws to boost the lead to four. After a steal by JaKiya Thompson, Carlsen made another free throw to push the lead to five.

“We were just looking for any good looks we can get,” Feuerbach said. “Obviously, the time was running down so we were looking for wide-open layups. ... I saw I had a mismatch and I just took it. It gave us a lot of momentum because we all knew we had to lock in on defense. If they get an easy score we were right back to where we were two seconds ago.”

The Spartans were playing their third game without post Evyn Carrier, who suffered an injury last week against Ottawa. Ella Shipley scored 14 and Carlsen had eight points and eight rebounds for the Spartans. Thompson had seven rebounds, while Feuerbach had six rebounds and three steals.

Wickness said multiple players have stepped up in big situations for the Spartans, and on Friday it was Feuerbach.

“When you’re a senior, this is your opportunity to put your team on your back,” Wickness said. “We have a lot of different girls that can do that and in that situation, it just happened to be Faith. ... Big-time players are going to make big-time plays, and that’s what you saw there.”

DeKalb led 6-4 on a pair of Gray free throws with 3:31 left, but Feuerbach answered with a 3-pointer. Sycamore would never trail again, and DeKalb didn’t tie it up again until the final minute.

After Gray’s bucket to knot things up, Sykes said the team was very confident.

“Our kids are upset and rightfully so,” Sykes said. “The effort we put out there on the floor as a team is what I expect to see out there in practice and on the floor. I know they have that in them. Super-pleased with our effort. Not happy about the outcome because I thought we should have won the game.”

Natalie Rosenow scored eight for the Barbs, with Kailey Porter grabbing 12 rebounds to go with six points.

The loss was the third in a row for the Barbs, all this week to teams that are a combined 69-6 entering play Friday night, including a 72-29 loss to Naperville North on Thursday.

“We’ll head back to practice and see what we can do to make sure we put this team on the floor in the postseason and see what we can do,” Sykes said. “We had a very difficult week and at times felt sorry for ourselves. Facing Naperville North earlier in the year and knowing what we were facing, I don’t think we played anywhere near what we could have last night. But I’m super-proud we came out the way we did tonight.”

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