Dundee-Crown gets first win for Miller

Sarah Miller has her first career win under her belt and Dundee-Crown’s girls basketball team has its first win of the season after beating Streamwood 49-41 at the Chargers’ Thanksgiving Tournament Saturday.

The Chargers (1-3) never trailed as they scored in double figures in each quarter while holding the Sabers to just 13 first-half points. D-C led by 11 at halftime.

“It feels good (to get the win) because the girls deserve it,” said Miller, the former Mundelein assistant who took over the D-C program this season.

“They have been working extremely hard, and it was great for us to pull off a full four-quarter game.”

Leading the way for D-C was sophomore Melissa Barker, who had 15 points, 4 assists and was 6 of 8 from the free-throw line, as well as senior Kagan Faulkner, who came off the bench to score 9 points and shot 50 percent from the field.

“I think (Barker) is getting more confident with the dribble and she handled their pressure real well tonight,” Miller said. “I also thought that Faulkner came off the bench really strong for us tonight. She played good defense and handled the ball with confidence as well.”

Lauren Lococo, another standout for the Chargers who also had 9 points on the night, was one of the players to benefit from playing on the floor with Barker, something she can continue to look forward to.

“I like playing with Melissa, she’s a really smart player and I still have next year with her too, so it’s been fun,” Lococo said.

As for the Sabres (0-3), their offensive struggles continue but there are positives to be found in a game that saw them score their most points all year.

Hannah McGlone, making her first appearance of the season from an injury, scored 8 points and had 3 rebounds, and Holly Foret scored 6 points for Streamwood until they each fouled-out early in the fourth quarter.

But Sabres’ coach George Rosner knows that his team will have to have more players step up in order to get better.

“Hannah started the second half and energized us a little bit, but we had way too many defensive mistakes, and too many missed layups,” Rosner said. “We were in a position to come back and win this game, but there were a lot of fouls called.”

That was the case on both ends of the floor, as each team was in the bonus early in the third and had nearly 50 free-throw attempts combined.

For D-C, three of its players had three fouls going into the fourth quarter, while Streamwood had four players with at least three.

D-C hit just 12 of 21 from the line on the night, but was able to survive thanks to key shots from Barker in the fourth quarter.