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Super start helps Dundee-Crown past Rolling Meadows

It was the game, or at least the first half, Dundee-Crown's boys basketball team has probably been waiting to play all season.

And the Chargers sure picked a good time for it. Dundee-Crown was nearly flawless Monday night in a nifty first half during which it built a 20-point lead on host Rolling Meadows and held on for 72-68 first-round Class 4A regional win.

The No. 17-seeded Chargers (8-19) get the top seed in the sectional, Barrington, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Rolling Meadows.

While they might need two flawless halves to beat the Mid-Suburban League champion Broncos, the Chargers were happy with their ability to shoot well and maintain their composure against No. 15 seed Rolling Meadows.

Kiwaun Seals (15 points), Sam Buckley (17) and Nick Shydlowski hit key free throws down the stretch as Meadows rallied from down as much as 40-17 in the first half. Buckley and Seals each had layups on home-run pass inbounds plays to stunt comeback efforts from the Mustangs (10-17).

"We expected them to come back," Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said, especially "playing on their home court. Our guys handled it pretty well."

"We just had to be strong with the ball," said Buckley, who noted this whole season seems like "we've been dealing with a bunch of adversity."

The adversity Monday night came in the form of sophomores Jack Schoessling (22 points) and Jared Murphy (21), who combined for 11 second-half field goals, four of them 3-pointers, and brought Meadows back within 5 twice.

"We realized we all needed to step up," Murphy said of the second-half rally. "We were just playing harder."

The Mustangs might have come all the way back, but twice missed free throws with chances to pull even closer and shot just 10-for-20 at the foul line for the game. Schoessling's drive got the lead under 10 in the fourth quarter for the first time since the first quarter. His 3 and subsequent jumper made it 70-65 very late in the game. But free throws by Shydlowski and Caleb Parson put it out of reach.

"I was really proud of the way the kids came back," said Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich.

"We lost the game in the first half. We gave up 42 points and go down 20. They (D-C) were very quick. That hurt us."

So did the ball distribution. Seals, usually the high scorer, distributed the ball deftly on feeds to high scorer Jameson Cowan (18 points), who timed his cuts to the basket perfectly.

"One of his better efforts at that," Huber said of Seals' flair for distributing the ball.

Dundee-Crown did everything right in the first half, Cowan was perfect from the field, Buckley and Seals shared the ball, freshman Jack Orndahl came off the bench and knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, and all of a sudden it was a 20-point bulge.

"We were definitely physical as a team," said Buckley.

And smart, taking advantage of Meadows' aggressive stance on defense to generate backdoor cuts for baskets.

"We didn't have any energy on defense," Murphy said of the first half.

Overall though, for Dundee-Crown, it was all just very gratifying. Looking back on the 42-point first half, Huber said, "There've been games we haven't scored 42 in the game."

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