Inside game lifts Dundee-Crown over Streamwood
During a film session the morning of Dundee-Crown's game against Streamwood, the second game for both teams in the Lady Chargers' Thanksgiving Tournament, D-C coach Sarah Miller emphasized her team's ability to dominate every facet of the game. But she really honed in on the Chargers ability to play a punishing inside game.
"We know we can play an all-around game," Miller said. "But our physical game, we started calling it 'play and pay,' because it can really take a toll on the other team."
The girls must have been paying attention, because in the game Friday night, Dundee-Crown played, and Streamwood paid. The Chargers opened up an 8-0 lead less than two minutes into the game on the strength of four straight buckets in the paint by sophomores Alyssa Crenshaw and Gianine Boado and cruised to a 59-33 win over the Sabers.
Like their male counterparts, the Dundee-Crown Lady Chargers' logo is a knight on steed. The ladies might want to change theirs to the Dodge muscle car of the same name, because theirs is one heckuva high octane offense.
Crenshaw, a center, and Boado, her power forward classmate, and junior guard Payton Schmidt each had a dozen points to lead Dundee-Crown (2-0). In all, 11 different Chargers scored.
Streamwood's junior point guard Mandy Mien led the Sabres (1-1) with nine points, forward Colleen Veguilla had seven, including a pair of 3-pointers, and Kaylee Angle added six.
"That was a pretty strong first half," assessed Dundee-Crown coach Sarah Miller. "I thought we controlled the tempo really well and everybody contributed. And we're actually a very good defensive team, and we have enough talent to have a well-rounded game. Tonight we shared the ball well and it was a very positive game."
After falling behind 8-0, Streamwood halved the deficit on an inside bucket by Riya Patel and a drive by Mein, before Dundee-Crown closed the quarter with a 12-3 run to take a 20-7 lead after eight minutes.
"They really out-muscled and out-played us inside," said Streamwood coach George Rosner. "Their post-player just put a clinic on us tonight. It was rough to watch."
"I thought we'd hit some more shots than we did. We all just have to learn from this one."
D-C went on another tear, this time a 12-0 run, to go up 32-7 midway through the second period. Streamwood did what it could to chip away at the 25-point deficit, sandwiching a pair of treys and a free throw from Veguilla around a jumper from Mien to pull to within 34-16 at halftime.
But the Chargers' high-speed game seemed to flummox the Sabres and the pace was taking its toll. When Streamwood did get opportunities they often turned the ball over or fired air balls from the perimeter that only seemed to fuel the Chargers' run-and-gun offense.
Trailing 49-25 after three quarters, the Sabers scored the first five points of the final stanza to cut the deficit to 50-30 and ignite a little hope with 6:47 left to play.
But at that point the Chargers kicked their defense into overdrive, their pressure and pace forcing turnover after turnover. D-C held Streamwood scoreless until 1:50 left when Vivian Sumoski dropped in a baseline drummer to make it 59-32, but by then the Chargers were little more than barely discernible taillights in the distance.