Dundee-Crown can't sustain fast start

The first 10-plus minutes could not have gone much better for Dundee-Crown in Friday night's girls basketball game at Fox Valley Conference leader McHenry.

The Chargers produced their own first-quarter run to answer one by the Warriors. They had 23 points 5:43 before halftime and led by three.

But sustaining success has been an issue for D-C. And it was again as McHenry flipped the script as the Warriors led by 10 at halftime and by as much as 23 en route to a 59-42 victory.

"We know we're very capable of beating any team," said D-C senior Allison Michalski, who had 14 of her 16 points and 7 of her 9 rebounds in the first half. "We need to put our minds to it and not hang our heads. We need to come together as a team and jell as one."

The Chargers (2-6, 1-3) shot 6-for-14 from the field to lead 18-16 after one on a 3-pointer by Paige Gieseke (12 points, 8 rebounds). A short baseline jumper by Anna Kieltyka put them up 23-20 but a 3 by Madi Kaempf sparked a 16-3 burst by McHenry (6-3, 4-0) to end the half.

"We talked about how we needed to come out super strong with urgency in the first half," Michalski said.

"That's the team I believe we're capable of being for a whole game," D-C coach Sarah Miller said of the strong start. "But we really have a hard time being consistent in filling our roles.

"In the first quarter we had that run where we were playing together and playing team defense and team offense. Then we went away from everything we know works."

And McHenry had the right combination of sophomore guard Izzy Gscheidle (19 points) outside to complement 6-foot juniors Liz Alsot (14 points, 13 rebounds) and Avalon Henderson (6 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks) inside. Gscheidle was 7-for-12 from the field and 3-for-4 behind the arc.

"This was probably the best I've seen us play in three years," said McHenry coach Rob Niemic. "Dundee-Crown is a good team and they play with a lot of passion. We matched that passion and effort and continued it for all four quarters."

D-C got within 41-32 with 2:44 left in the third when Michalski got a steal underneath the basket and fed Gieseke for a layup and then Michalski turned another steal into a layup.

But McHenry countered with a decisive 12-point run as the Chargers went scoreless for 6:50. They shot just 25.5 percent from the field (14-for-55) and went 2-for-11 on 3s and 12-for-29 on free throws.

"We've had some great moments," Miller said. "We play with these teams but we haven't figured out the consistency of four quarters yet."