Before he exited Dundee-Crown, Jacobs basketball player Samson Averehi remembered to put in his sparkly stud earrings.

“I recently got these, like back in September,” Averehi said with a wide smile. “I just wanted a new look, add a couple of accessories.”

Averehi’s flashy jewelry shined almost as brightly as his performance in Jacobs’ 51-34 win over the Chargers on Friday night in a Fox Valley Conference game in Carpentersville.

Averehi scored a season- and game-high 18 points, putting on a second-half shooting clinic that is rare for the 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior forward, who was more of a rebounder and defensive presence in the paint as a starter last season.

“I’m just happy for him,” Golden Eagles coach Jimmy Roberts said. “He’s a great kid, super coachable, really quiet, just a real likable kid. He hasn’t been playing basketball for a real long time, like only four or five years.”

Freshman guard Malachi Bell added 10 points and seven rebounds for Jacobs (6-2, 2-2), while Carson Goehring scored all nine of his points in the fourth quarter as the Golden Eagles pulled away. Averehi, who had 15 points after halftime, twice fed Goehring for layups.

Rasheed Trice scored eight points on 4-of-4 shooting in the first quarter for Dundee-Crown (0-6, 0-4) and finished with a team-high 13 points. Guard Kadin Malone and forward Anthony Spain added 10 and nine points, respectively, for the Chargers, who got scoring from only four players.

D-C committed 18 turnovers, including 12 in the first half.

“We’re getting better every day,” said Malone, who also had three steals and four rebounds. “We’ve very young too, so I think that’s one of our problems. We don’t got a lot of chemistry like everyone else because no one’s been playing together for a long time. It matters.”

Both teams struggled offensively in the first half, and it was Averehi who sparked Jacobs in the third quarter after the Eagles led only 18-14 at halftime. After scoring only three points on 1-of-4 shooting in the first half, the lefty used a spin move in the lane two minutes into the third quarter and then scored on a putback a little more than a minute later.

When Averehi banked in an 18-footer from straight on later in the third, Jacobs was up 29-19.

“We were struggling with putting the ball in the basket a lot,” Averehi said. “I just tried to impact the game, build momentum for the team and make the right plays to get us back in it and flowing. We had a lot of turnovers [six] in the first half.”

It was the first double-digit scoring game of the season for Averehi, who came in averaging 4.1 points a game. Roberts had been playing Averehi on the wing. Against D-C, Roberts moved Averehi to what he calls his team’s “pinch” position, where he’s more in the middle.

Goehring, a physical forward who got a late start to the season because of football, was inserted into the starting lineup.

“He struggled getting going this year,” Roberts said of Averehi. “He’s not a great shooter. We made a lineup change tonight, and he went back into a position that he typically plays.

“Maybe it was the genius move by me,” Roberts added with a chuckle. “Maybe that helped him feel more comfortable. We’re not going to count on him [to score] every night, but if he’s a little more comfortable and can put the ball in the basket a little more consistently, that will be a big help for us.”

Averehi hit three 3-pointers in as many attempts in the fourth (all from up top) and finished 6 of 6 from the floor in the second half.

“I’ve been practicing a lot,” Averehi said. “I’ve been getting a lot of shots up, trying to get my confidence back.”

Averehi also blocked three shots, which is something he particularly enjoys.

“It gets more energy up,” he said. “It gets the crowd loud and just gives us a little momentum.”

Jacobs guard Elijah Bell scored only seven points on 4-of-12 shooting, but Roberts noted the junior’s back-to-back baskets in six seconds that extended a four-point lead to 27-18 midway through the third quarter. Bell hit a top-of-the-key 3, and then after D-C turned the ball over under its own basket, he hit a pull-up floater off an inbounds play.

“I was really proud of him,” Roberts said. “I think he made the winning plays.”