Crystal Lake South puts Dundee-Crown away late
Crystal Lake took Dundee-Crown's best punch, got off the mat and proceeded to win the bout easily.
South, up 28-17 at halftime, watched D-C come out of the locker-room storming to a 10-2 run to slice the Gators deficit to 30-27.
The Gators made sure the Chargers to get any closer ending the game with an impressive 22-4 run in cruising to a 52-31 Fox Valley Conference win in Carpentersville Friday night.
"I like the way we kept our composure to start the third quarter," said Crystal Lake South coach Matt LePage. "We showed a lot of resiliency. D-C is a very good team and we knew they would make a run. I thought throughout the whole game we played great defense collectively. Our defense did a great job of disrupting their offense. On offense, we have good shooters, who can shoot the 3. It was a great win on the road."
South (8-3, 4-2), 9-of-15 from 3-point range for 60 percent, excelled at both ends of the floor in opening up a 11-point advantage at intermission.
Tyler Miller paced the Gators in the first half with 12 points including a pair of trey while Ben Geske added 5 with a trey.
South's defense held the Chargers to only 7 field goals in 25 attempts for 28 percent and forced 9 turnovers during the first 16 minutes.
Led by 6 points from Jack Michalski and 4 from Jordan Hairston D-C climbed within 30-27 with 3:57 left in the third quarter.
The Chargers didn't score the rest of the quarter as South led by a pair of 3's from Pat Fischer scored the final 7 points and led 37-27 heading into the final 8 minutes.
Limiting D-C (8-2, 3-2) to only 1 field goal in the fourth quarter, South outscored the Chargers 15-4 during the final 8 minutes.
Miller, with 4 treys, paced the Gators with 20 points.
"We knew Dundee (Crown) would be a tough team and we came out with a lot of energy to start the game," said Miller. "I was getting looks on my 3's and was able to knock them down. We have a lot of players who can shoot the 3 and that spreads things out. Pat Fischer really got hot in the third quarter and got us going after their run to start the third quarter. It was a good conference win on the road against a good team. It gives us confidence going into the Hinkle Classic tomorrow."
Fischer, with the 2 3's, backed Miller with 9 while Geske with a 3 scored 7. Matt Reall added 6 with 5 assists.
Hairston led D-C with 11 while Michalski scored 10.
"We started out the second half on a good run but stopped scoring," said D-C coach Lance Huber. "We could never recover. South proved they are a very good basketball team."