His teammates followed. Propelled by the effort and energy off the bench provided by Smith and Carpenter, the Barbs got back into a tie for first place in the Northern Illinois Big 12 Conference with one game left with a dramatic 69-67 win against Rochelle at DeKalb High School.

Extra effort puts Barbs in 1st place in NI Big 12.

In the link posted above in blue, the DeKalb boys basketball coach Dave Rohlman talks about Jake Carpenter and his role in the victory against Sycamore on Friday at the NIU Convocation Center. Carpenter scored 11 points for the Barbs and helped DeKalb pull away in the second half for its 10th straight victory over Sycamore.

The Daily Chronicle also reported…”Rohlman said a key to the victory was senior guard Brian Sisler finding an open Carpenter on a long pass for a layup.  The execution wasn’t that much of a surprise considering Sisler played quarterback and Carpenter was a wide receiver for the DeKalb football team.  “Brian found him and to be honest, at that point, I think our crowd was like, ‘what happened here?’ It really didn’t have a lot of excitement going on on our part until Sisler found Carpenter on that pass and then Carp has a great reverse finish,” Rohlman said.  “I thought that brought a spark and got us going.”