Streamwood gets past Dundee-Crown
The Streamwood girls basketball team knows it will need to execute better offensively in order to win a regional championship.
The Sabres overcame a sluggish offensive performance in the first half Tuesday night to beat Dundee-Crown, 47-23, in the semifinals of the Class 4A Streamwood regional.
“They are trying to make things happen too fast,” Sabres coach George Rosner said of his team. “They’re used to fast. They are trying to make that special pass and sometimes it’s just not there. We absolutely have to take care of the ball better.”
No. 1 seed Streamwood (20-8) was 8-for-23 from the floor and turned the ball over 12 times in the first half against the fifth-seeded Chargers (4-24). Fortunately for the Sabres, the Chargers were just 3-for-21 with 17 turnovers in the opening 16 minutes as Streamwood led 19-7.
The Sabres led 13-7 midway through the second quarter. At that point they had 3 turnovers and were 1-for-7 from the floor in the quarter. A steal and layup from Jessica Cerda seemed to spark Streamwood, which scored the final 6 points of the quarter.
“Through the defense we are able to get an offensive flow,” Cerda said. “We turned it up on defense and it kind of clicked.”
Cerda scored 8 of her game-high 13 points in the third quarter as the Sabres began to pull away.
The Sabres shot 50 percent (11-for-22) in the second half, but still had 10 turnovers.
Deja Moore finished with 9 points, including 7 in the fourth quarter, and 9 rebounds for Streamwood. Hannah McGlone added 6 points and 9 rebounds.
Up next for Streamwood is No. 2 seed South Elgin, which beat Elgin in the other semifinal Tuesday, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the regional title game. The Storm beat the Sabres last season in the regional final.
“I’m excited. I know our whole team is excited,” Cerda said. “South Elgin is coming on strong, having a good second half of the season with Savanah (Uveges) back. If we play our game, we’ll be able to stay right with them.”
Jesenia Laboy led the Chargers with 11 points off the bench. Emily Michalski had 4 points and 13 rebounds to help D-C to a 45-30 rebounding advantage. But the Chargers shot just 19 percent (10-for-52) and were 2-for-13 from the free-throw line.
“We just couldn’t make any baskets,” D-C coach Michelle Russell said. “Our layups, our free throws, shots just didn’t fall for us. I thought we did a good job defensively, holding them for the most part. We just didn’t score tonight.”