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New Trier hands Burlington Central 1st loss

Burlington Central's girls basketball team got exactly what it wanted Saturday night in the quarterfinals of the 32nd annual Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown.

Well, maybe the Rockets didn't get exactly what they wanted, but they sure did get what they came to D-C for - competition.

Defending tournament champion and undefeated New Trier, one of top Class 4A teams in the state, schooled the Rockets, 62-41, to advance to Monday's 8 p.m. semifinal against Buffalo Grove, which beat St. Charles North 57-56 in overtime Saturday.

BC (10-1), last year's fourth place finisher in the Class 3A state finals, will play the North Stars at 5 p.m. Monday with the winner advancing to Tuesday's fifth-place game. Central beat SCN 53-47 at D-C last year before losing to Maine South in the consolation championship game.

"That was obviously the toughest team we've faced this year," said Rockets' coach Mark Smith, who teaches at St. Charles North, of the Trevians. "It was a good lesson for us that we have to do things exactly right in big games like that. We're not as crisp as New Trier."

Not many teams are. The Trevians (13-0) were led by 6-foot-3 junior Jeannie Boehm, who scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Junior Kathryn Pedi had 12 points, all in the first half as New Trier opened up a 38-23 lead at the break thanks to a 25-13 blitzing of the Rockets in the second quarter.

"They were tough to guard in many different areas," said Rockets' senior Aly DeTamble, who led her team with 10 points. "It was very frustrating. This was our first real test and we're going to learn from this."

Central hung with the Trevians for the game' first 10-plus minutes, trailing just 18-15 after junior Sam Pryor hit her third 3-pointer of the night with 5:49 left in the first half. But those would be the last points Pryor would score as New Trier clamped down defensively, using Boehm, the 5-10 Pedi and 6-2 senior Rachel West to deny Pryor touches the rest of the way.

Meanwhile the Trevians pounded the ball inside and took advantage of BC's fouls. New Trier went to the free throw line 30 times on the night, making 23, in addition to shooting 15-for-28 from the floor through three quarters and finishing 18 of 42. The Trevians also outrebounded Central 29-22. The Rockets also committed 11 of their 16 turnovers in the first half while New Trier only turned the ball over 10 times all night.

"We broke down in a few areas," said Smith. "We didn't box out well and we got beat down low. We play our best when all five are on the same page and when we got down tonight we tried to get it back too quickly."

Junior Shelby Holt added 9 points for Central, which was 14 of 39 shooting, including 8-for-19 from 3-point range.

"We came here for a reason - to play great competition and we just played great competition," Smith said. "Sometimes you learn more from a loss than you do in a win. It's only one game. We'll pick up the pieces and come back out Monday to play another strong team."

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