Dundee-Crown handles Streamwood

Great start. Fantastic finish.

Outscoring Streamwood 45-9 in the first and fourth quarters, Dundee-Crown's girls basketball team was able to overcome a lethargic effort in the second and third quarters. The end result was a 62-31 win for D-C in action at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament in Carpentersville Saturday night.

"I like the way we came out with a lot of intensity and got off to a good lead," said Dundee-Crown coach Sarah Miller. "I am proud of the finish but we got careless in the second and third quarters. We started rushing shots but give Streamwood credit, they didn't give up."

Led by 8 points from Melissa Barker that included two 3-pointers, the Chargers (2-2) rushed out to a 14-3 lead with 2:44 left in the first quarter.

Leading 20-5 after 8 minutes, D-C extended its lead to 20, 30-10, after a putback from Jesania Laboy with 38 seconds remaining before halftime.

Despite a miserable effort from the free throw line (4-of-27, 15 percent), the Sabres (0-3) didn't quit and got to within 8 of the Chargers, 37-29, on a driving layup from Jenejha Williams with 7:45 left in the game. D-C didn't let the Sabres get any closer as the Chargers ripped off 21 straight points to seize control of the game with a 58-29 lead with 1:48 remaining in the contest.

During the run, the Chargers connected on 10-of-12 shots from the field for a sizzling 83 percent.

Sophomore Allison Michalski led the 21-0 barrage with 10 points, which included connecting on 4-of-4 shots from the floor and 2-of-2 from the free throw line.

Michalski ended the game with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

"When I get the ball I want to go aggressively to the basket," said Michalski, "After a good start we got a little careless, and lost focus. We had too many lapses in the second and third quarters."

Creighton Fed added 11 points for the Chargers and Barker scored 10, all in the first half.

Streamwood coach George Rosner stated the poor free throw shooting really killed any momentum his team built up.

"We would do a good job of taking the ball to the basket, get fouled and then miss the free throws, said Rosner, "It killed the momentum. In all the years I have coached I have never seen one of my teams shoot 4-of-27 from the free throw line."

Williams led the Sabres with 11 points.