Poised Dundee-Crown knocks off Burlington Central
There's plenty of times it helps to have a roster with eight seniors, three juniors and four three-year starters.
Tuesday night definitely marked one such occasion for Dundee-Crown, playing on the road at Burlington Central in an early season battle for the Fox Valley Conference lead.
With one of those three-year starters, Gianine Boado, out with a knee injury and another, Alyssa Crenshaw, playing with four fouls, the Chargers watched the Rockets cut a 14-point deficit to three in the final two minutes.
Dundee-Crown didn't let Burlington Central get any closer, hitting 7 of 9 free throws and getting a breakaway layup from Payton Schmidt in the final 1:29 for a game-ending 9-0 run to seal a 56-44 victory.
The win puts No. 6 Dundee-Crown (7-0, 3-0) a game up on FVC newcomer No. 12 Burlington Central (6-2, 2-1).
"We knew this was going to be tough, physical," Chargers coach Sarah Miller said. "You have to be confident and poised and you have to face anything that is thrown at you. I was proud of them because in so many moments in that game when it was loud in that gym you just saw our leadership. They knew exactly what they needed to do."
Physical is probably an understatement. Bodies were hitting the floor on both sides all game.
Boado had to be helped off the court twice, first hurting her knee on a baseline drive in the second quarter and then again late in the third trying to grab a defensive rebound. The Rockets' Madelyn Menke left with a bloody chin.
A 3-pointer from Lily Moretti put the Rockets up 7-5 in the first quarter before the Chargers ended the quarter on an 8-0 run to take the lead for good.
They took their biggest first half lead at 23-11 on Makayla Gotter's free throw, and a 3-pointer by reserve Alaina Azar sent them to halftime up 26-18.
"She (Azar) has done that three times for us," Miller said. "She is a senior, she knows what her role is. They set a great screen for her and she was ready to knock it down."
Dundee-Crown dominated the glass in the first half 20-9 led by Crenshaw's 7.
Crenshaw also guarded Kat Schmidt while Katelyn Skibinski took Elana Wells. Dundee-Crown drew three charges in the game.
"In practice we really emphasized shutting down their key players," Crenshaw said. "We were able to do that but it wasn't just the two people guarding them, it was our whole team defense being on help line packed in ready to help."
The Chargers scored the first six points of the second half to go up 32-18 before a 14-4 run got the Rockets back in the game. It helped to have Crenshaw in foul trouble, and Wells (20 points) and Schmidt (13 points) got going, Schmidt's floater in the lane brought them within 38-34 going to the fourth.
The margin fluctuated between 4 and 7 points until Schmidt's 3-point play with 1:29 remaining brought the Rockets as close as 47-44.
Burlington Central didn't score again to finish an ice cold 15-for-54 (27.8%) shooting night, while the Chargers got a big lift from Arysia Harris with 11 points off the bench to join Crenshaw (13 points, 9 rebounds) and Schmidt (10 points) in double figures.
"Wells is a good player and so is Schmidt and they have other good players," Miller said. "They play super hard. But I just felt we did exactly what we wanted to. We made them work for shots. Our defense is our identity."
The Rockets will try to bounce back Friday at Jacobs.
"There's some things we are trying to figure out offensively," Rockets coach Collin Kalamatas said. "When you have two really talented offensive players, sometimes when they don't have the ball in their hands it can become challenging in terms of having some flow offensively. We really struggled. We haven't seen a team that physical. It's a good learning experience."