Crystal Lake South hands Burlington C. 1st loss

Chanel Fanter had every reason to smile.

The Crystal Lake South senior scored 21 points with 11 rebounds to propel the Gators to a 42-39 upset win over previously undefeated Burlington Central in a first round game of the 33rd Annual Dundee-Crown Charger Classic girls basketball tournament Saturday in Carpentersville.

Fanter, who played in all but 9 seconds of the game, connected on 9-of-15 shots from the field.

South (12-4) will play Resurrection in a quarterfinal contest Monday at 6:30 p.m. Central (8-1) will take on Barrington in a consolation bracket

contest at 12:30 p.m. Resurrection defeated Barrington 48-41 Saturday.

"Burlington Central is a very talented team who always makes noise in the state tournament," said Fanter. "This is a great way to start the tournament. We did a good job of handling their pressure. Everybody stepped up to the plate with the game on the line."

South coach Mark Mucha was impressed with Fanter's effort.

"We lost nine seniors from last year and Chanel has done a great job this season as a leader," said Mucha. "She has accepted any role we have given here. She has done a great job of motivating the newbies. Chanel was outstanding against a very good team."

The Gators, who never trailed in the game, started fast leading 10-3 with 4:25 remaining in the first quarter. Fanter scored 6 and Annika Sevcik tallied 4 points.

South's biggest lead was 23-10 after a 15-footer by Taylor Jozefowicz with 2:22 left before halftime and South still led 34-24 going into the fourth quarter.

Central, which connected on 14-of-46 shots from the field for 30 percent, got back in the game by scoring the first 10 points of the fourth quarter to tie the score at 34 with 4:50 left in the game. Kayla Ross and Sam Cruz canned 3-pointers during the Rockets' 10-0 surge.

Crystal Lake South, which went nearly 5 minutes without a point, took the lead for good 37-34 on a trey by Kelly Gaede with 4 minutes left in the game.

Ross led the Rockets with 12 points while Sam Pryor scored 10. Sevcik backed Fanter with 8 points.

"We really came out flat," said Central coach Mark Smith. "We didn't play hard for 32 minutes. Hopefully we can learn from this game. South played hard and is very well coached."