Dundee-Crown moves to 2-0

Lance Huber is thankful to be headed into the holiday break at 2-0. His Dundee-Crown Chargers’ 57-43 win against Power House Academy of Chicago at the Sycamore tournament Tuesday night wasn’t a thing of beauty, but he’s not complaining- too much.

“We did some good things,” the Charger coach said. “It’s the second game. It’s good that we get to practice tomorrow and work out some kinks, and see where we stand.”

On the other hand, he wasn’t really happy with the Chargers’ relatively slow tempo.

“We play really fast in practice and then we come out here and they freak out,” he said.

Brandon Rodriguez shook off an ankle injury suffered the day before in the Chargers’ season opener, and scored 20 points to go with 6 rebounds. Dylan Kissack added 14 points and JT Beasley had 10 for the Chargers (2-0).

“I got my ankle fixed up a little bit,” Rodriguez said. “Being a senior leader on the team, I just tried to fight through it and be an example for my teammates.”

D-C quickly fell behind 6-2, but scored 9 straight points to take the lead for good. The Chargers stretched the advantage to double digits late in the third quarter and were never seriously threatened.

Elliott Cole did his best to shoot the Panthers back into the game. The 5-foot-10 senior was nearly a one-man offense, scoring 15 of his game-high 33 points in the fourth quarter to keep the Panthers close.

Cole hit an old-fashioned 3-point play and a new-school 3-pointer to make it 50-43, but the Chargers made 7 free throws down the stretch — while holding Cole and the Panthers scoreless — to ice the game.

Kissack grabbed 6 rebounds as the Chargers held a 28-27 edge on the boards. They also came through on the offensive end, shooting 51 percent for the game.