Harris' career-high 24 sparks Bartlett`

Kelly Harris had a lot of motivation to step up in the second half for her Bartlett girls basketball team Saturday.

"Kelly is not really a morning person," said Hawks' coach Denise Sarna, "and I reminded all of them at halftime that losing this game meant we would be playing at 9:30 Monday morning."

Harris added: "Coach got in my face (at halftime) and told me I looked like I was going to cry out there. The first half was not good for me so I picked it up in the second half."

And how. The 6-foot-1 junior scored 16 of her career-high 24 points in the final 16 minutes, including 10 in the fourth quarter, as the Hawks came from behind to beat Dundee-Crown 65-62 in a consolation bracket game of the 32nd annual Charger Classic at D-C.

"Kelly is more than capable," said Sarna of Harris, who was 9-for-14 shooting including a 3-pointer, and added 9 rebounds. "Dundee-Crown is really physical and she came down with the ball between two people several times and still finished."

The Chargers (7-10) held the lead for most of the game but were never able to create much separation on the scoreboard. D-C's biggest lead was 6, 37-31, early in the third quarter and the Chargers carried a 47-46 lead into the fourth.

But that's when Bartlett (8-5) put together the best run of the day for either team. The Hawks scored the first 9 points of the fourth quarter, taking the lead for good at 48-47 on a turnaround in the lane from Harris just 12 seconds into the period. Bartlett's lead the blossomed to 55-47 lead after a 3-pointer from senior Lauren Janczak with 5:54 left in the game.

The Chargers continued to battle and eventually cut Bartlett's lead to 61-58 on a 3-pointer from junior Melissa Barker with 2:16 left and then 63-62 on a basket by Lococo with 44 seconds to play, but Hawks' freshman Kayla Hare made 2 free throws with 14 seconds to go and D-C couldn't get a 3-point shot off before the buzzer.

Junior Kaitlin Brohan added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks, who play Resurrection at 12:30 p.m. Monday, and Janczak had 10 points. Junior Nicole Gerdevich had 8 points and 10 rebounds as the Hawks outrebounded D-C 41-24.

"We didn't have a great start today but we found a way," said Sarna. "Kaitlin and Nicole really busted their butts today and Kayla making those two free throws was huge for a freshman."

Harris was pleased with the Hawks' effort as a team.

"We changed up our offense a little but and got each other open," she said. "A bunch of people contributed and it was a real team win."

Lococo led D-C with 17 points and Michalski added 16 for the Chargers, who made 23 of 45 from the floor. But their coach, Sarah Miller, lamented the rebounding woes her team suffered through.

"They had 5-6 chances in a row a couple of times and then we started fouling and hacking and we got into foul trouble," said Miller, whose team will face Maine West at 9:30 a.m. Monday. "Credit Bartlett. They played through and through. We missed 3-4 layups, maybe more. You look at the rebounding and layups alone - those are things we have to do. We have to play stronger, that's the bottom line."