Lococo, Dundee-Crown outlast Jacobs in OT
In a game where Dundee-Crown girls basketball coach Sarah Miller said afterward she never felt fully relieved until the final buzzer of a 66-60 overtime win over rival Jacobs Tuesday night, Chargers guard Lauren Lococo found her offensive rebound putback that padded D-C's lead in the extra session to be somewhat therapeutic.
The senior, who had lost two straight to Jacobs and 4 of the last 5 dating back to December of 2012, gave the Chargers a 57-54 lead after she corralled a miss in the paint and banked the shot off the left angle of the glass. From that moment on D-C (9-12, 1-4) never looked back as Creighton Fed's 6 free throws in overtime finally turned away a pesky Golden Eagles (5-11, 0-4) squad, who came back from as many as 13 points down in the second quarter to take an 8-point lead with 1:15 left in the third quarter and fight tooth-and-nail until the end.
"It's scary, anything can happen," Lococo said. "Jacobs is a really hardworking team. They stepped up on defense in the fourth quarter and overtime and it was scary. (The overtime rebound) was a relief but it was not for sure."
"That was a big bucket," Miller said of Lococo's shot. "That kind of gave us some momentum going into those last few possessions. She stepped up huge. She's a big leader, she's one of our captains."
Lococo led all scorers with 17 points, including 9 in the first half, to go with her 10 rebounds (7 offensive) and 3 steals while Fed's 16 points came primarily from the free-throw line (10-for-10). D-C sank 12 of 16 free throws in overtime and finished 21-for-28 on a night where the lead changed 4 times in the second half, which also included 4 ties in the final 18 minutes.
"Credit to Jacobs, but I feel like just playing as a team, kind of digging deep and doing the little things there at the end," Miller said helped D-C in this Fox Valley Conference Valley Division matchup. "Obviously hitting some free throws helped, but I thought we did a really good job of taking care of the ball."
D-C, which shot 34 percent, had only 15 turnovers to Jacobs' 26 and scored 21 points off them. But 7 Charger turnovers came in the third quarter when junior Talia Surges and freshman Kerri Healy spearheaded an 11-0 Golden Eagles run to start the second half. Surges and Jennifer Barnec both registered 14 points for the Golden Eagles while Healy finished with 8, but it was Surges who would knock 2 of her 4 3-pointers in the third quarter while Healy added 6 points to help take a 44-36 lead.
"We took their best shot early, we responded and came back and took the lead," said Jacobs coach Joe Benoit, whose team shot 44 percent without Jessica Powell, who turned in ankle in practice on Monday. "I'm so proud of our kids, I really am. From start to finish we battled and we didn't make many excuses, it was a great game."
The Surges-Healy combo looked as if it was going to steal one on the road after a slow start that saw D-C lead 24-11 in the second. But the Chargers found their defensive tenacity and regained the lead after Jasmine Sanchez sank the last of her 12 points off the bench with 5:30 remaining. Nursing a 2-point lead throughout the fourth, D-C threw the ball away with 1:35 left which led to Barnec's jumper inside the arc to tie the game at 52 with 1:05 left. Fed's shot missed as time expired to spark OT, but 3 turnovers by Jacobs didn't help down the stretch.
"We do situations in practice like this where one team will be down and one team has to come back," Lococo said. "And it just obviously paid off with the pressure."