Dundee-Crown slips past Grant, into regional final

A little more than two months ago, Dundee-Crown's girls basketball team dropped a 40-37 overtime decision to Grant.

This time, the fifth-seeded Chargers (14-17) narrowly escaped a late comeback bid to hand the fourth-seeded Bulldogs (13-15) a 46-43 defeat in Thursday night's Class 4A girls basketball regional semifinals at Streamwood.

Junior Paige Gieseke sank a pair of free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining to give the Chargers a 3-point lead while Grant's last-second desperation 3-point attempt from midcourt was wide of the backboard.

"It was definitely a lot of pressure," said Gieseke, who led the Chargers with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 4 steals. "I was prepared for that situation and stepped to the line with confidence."

A few seconds earlier, that confidence was fleeting when Grant senior guard Jasmine Sangster stepped to the free-throw line with her team trailing 44-43.

Sangster, who scored a game-high 21 points with 7 rebounds, missed both foul shots with 7.8 seconds remaining.

"At that moment, I'm just praying," admitted Chargers coach Sarah Miller, "especially because we missed some free throws in that game."

"It's disappointing," said Grant coach Kathie Swanson. "It's really a tough way to end the game but it didn't come down to that. You can't just look at one possession. There were a lot of little things that we didn't do that cost us in that game."

The game was close throughout, with the score tied at 9-9 after one quarter and 21-21 at the intermission.

"I thought we were in a good place going into halftime with some momentum," said Miller, whose Chargers will face top-seeded South Elgin in Friday's 7 p.m. regional championship. South Elgin defeated D-C 58-54 back on Nov. 25.

After Sangster connected on a baseline jumper to give the Bulldogs a 23-21 lead early in the third quarter, the Chargers tied it on a driving layup by Allison Michalski (11 points, 9 rebounds) and took the lead for good moments later on one of four 3-pointers by senior guard Melissa Barker (12 points, 3 steals).

Barker canned another 3-pointer on the Chargers' opening possession of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 38-30.

D-C still led 44-38 with 2:15 remaining before Grant scored 5 consecutive points, capped by freshman Ally Mahinay's 3-pointer to close the gap to 44-43 with 40 seconds left.

"Losing in overtime the last time (to Grant) definitely left us with a sting," said Miller. "We knew coming in it was going to be a battle to the finish and it was."

McKaylie Kray added 9 points for Grant.