advertisement

Freshman Schmidt steps up as Dundee-Crown topples Cary-Grove

Payton Schmidt played beyond her years Saturday.

Schmidt, Dundee-Crown's 5-foot-5 freshman guard, scored 14 points including all 7 of her team's points in the fourth quarter, as the Chargers held off Cary-Grove 34-32 in Fox Valley Conference girls basketball action in Carpentersville.

"My teammates really help me to be confident," said Schmidt, who nailed two key 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. "They put pressure on me in practice and tell me when to shoot and when not to shoot. I just try to knock them down when we need them."

The Chargers (12-11, 6-5) definitely needed Schmidt to knock them down Saturday in a game where offense was a rare commodity.

D-C, which has won 3 straight, led 13-12 at halftime before each team picked up its offensive game in the second half. Cary-Grove (11-10, 6-5) was fortunate to be down by only a point at the break after making just 2 of 16 field goal attempts in the first half. The Trojans finished 9 of 39 for the game.

"It's another one of those games where we'll watch the tape and see open shot, open shot," said C-G coach Rod Saffert, whose team has lost 4 of its last 5 games by a total of 12 points. "We had a lot of nice looks."

The Chargers came out the aggressor in the second half, opening up a 23-15 lead after a Paige Gieske 3-pointer with 5:42 left in the quarter. But the Trojans bounced right back with a 6-0 run to close the gap to 23-21 on a Katie Sowa basket with 3:43 left.

D-C held Cary-Grove at bay, though, and used 4 free throws from Schmidt to take a 27-25 lead into the final 8 minutes.

Twenty seconds into the final quarter the Chargers lost senior post Allison Michalski for the rest of the game when she reinjured a sore neck after hitting the floor hard driving to the basket.

That's when Schmidt took over. Her 3-pointer from the right corner off a nifty feed from Gieske made it 30-25 with 5:23 to play. After 2 free throws from Cary-Grove's Katie Demert made it 30-27, Schmidt knocked down another 3 from the right wing at the 3:46 mark to put D-C up 33-27.

"Those were some big buckets," said D-C coach Sarah Miller of Schmidt's 3-pointers. "With (junior) Kennedy (White) out injured, Payton has had to step in and she's done a nice job."

Neither team could muster any offense after that and it appeared the Chargers had the game in hand when Becca Kendeigh nailed a 3-pointer with 30 seconds to play to make it 33-30. A D-C turnover 7 seconds later and a Sowa (9 points) bank shot 3 seconds after that and suddenly the Trojans were only down 33-32.

But with 13 seconds left Schmidt made 1 of 2 free throws and Cary-Grove missed a wide open 8-footer to tie, Gieske (7 points, 6 rebounds) grabbed the rebound with 0.7 seconds left and D-C, which went just 1-for-7 from the line in the fourth quarter and 7 of 17 for the game, had survived.

Another big key to the win for the Chargers was their defense on Sowa, who had 22 points in Cary-Grove's 51-40 win over D-C on Dec. 2.

"Lucy Atherton stepped up and did a nice job on Sowa today," Miller said. "(Sowa) dictated the game the first time.

"We just told them that great teams find a way to grind things out. Even in the ugly moments we found a way to come back."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.