Rockford Boylan edges Dundee-Crown
It was a hill the Dundee-Crown Chargers girls basketball team just couldn't climb.
With Boylan Catholic scoring the first 10 points of the game, the Chargers got to within a point at halftime 21-20 but never took the lead as the Titans sneaked back to Rockford with a 38-36 win in fourth and final round action of the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament.
"I know we didn't win but it feels like a victory against a state ranked team," said D-C coach Sarah Miller.
"We could have quit but didn't. We knew we had to play better defense after Boylan's 10-0 start. We did give them many easy shots and made them work. I am encouraged by the team effort."
Connecting on its first 5 shots of the game including a 3-for-3 effort and 6 points from Peyton Kennedy, the Titans led 10-0 with 3:28 left in the first quarter.
The Chargers (2-2) scored their first basket and first points of the game on a twisting contested layup by Payton Schmidt with 2:52 left in the initial quarter to make the score 10-2.
Boylan's biggest advantage was 11, 17-6 after a putback by Erin Bishop with 6:33 left in the first half. The Chargers responded with a 14-4 run to end the half to cut the Titans' deficit to 21-20 after 16 minutes of action.
Sophomore Gianine Boado led the comeback for the Chargers with 5 points including a 3-pointer.
Boylan (4-0) started the second half strong with 4 straight points on baskets by Kennedy and Ashley Reyes to take a 25-20 lead with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
Misfiring on its first 9 shots of the second half, D-C didn't score in the second half until Schmidt buried 2 free throws with 2:30 left in the quarter.
The Chargers, plagued by 19 turnovers, made their only basket of the quarter on a putback by Alyssa Crenshaw with 48 seconds left.
D-C got within 31-30 on a 10-footer by Katelynn Skibinski with 4:11 remaining but couldn't get any closer.
The Chargers were led by Schmidt with 11 while Skibinski and Crenshaw scored 9 apiece,
Kennedy led the Titans with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
"Dundee-Crown played very well and really challenged us defensively," said Boylan coach Paul Perrone. "We had trouble penetrating their defense. I thought our defense did a good job of contesting their shots. It is nice to go 4-0 in this tournament and it gets us ready for conference (NIIC) play."