Dundee-Crown reaches 20 wins
Patience, it is said, is a virtue. Pride, a vice.
The Dundee-Crown Chargers displayed great patience Friday night against Crystal Lake South, methodically and relentlessly probing and prodding the defensive underbelly of the visiting Gators until they found a soft spot. And when they did, they pounced.
The primary beneficiary of said pouncing was Gianine Boado. The 5-foot-9 junior guard tallied a game-best 15 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the floor to lead the Chargers to a 47-28 victory over Crystal Lake South. She was the only player on either team to reach double digits.
Sophomore playmaker Brooke Kuffel paced the Gators with 9 points, while junior forward Allie Schoen added 7.
The win improved the Chargers to 20-7 for the season and gave them their first 20-win campaign since 2003. It also improved their Fox Valley Conference record to 12-1, ensuring they will remain no worse than tied with Hampshire for league lead. Crystal Lake South falls to 6-18 overall, 3-10 in the conference.
The victory also makes the Chargers' regular-season-ending visit (after a road trip to Jacobs Saturday night and a Wednesday home game against Crystal Lake Central) to Hampshire next Friday loom large.
"I thought we showed great patience tonight, and that led to a lot of high-percentage shots," said Dundee-Crown coach Sarah Miller. "At halftime we talked about playing smarter basketball, establishing the ball in the high post and getting our inside-outside game going. As a result, we got - and made - a lot of short jumpers."
As for the vice, the Chargers take great pride in their defense, and it showed Friday night. They kept Crystal Lake South colder than the Polar Vortex, limiting them to just seven field goals in 24 tries, a scrawny 29 percent. The Chargers' defense was particularly stifling in the first half, when they held the Gators to just four field goals in 13 tries.
"Dundee-Crown is very physical," noted Gators head man Mark Mucha. "They play that way for four quarters and it's tough to break through. I actually think we're very similar teams, but tonight their shots went in and ours didn't."
The Chargers scored the first six points of the contest, then watched as Crystal Lake South made good on a layup and got a pair of free throws each from Kuffel and Trier to tie the game with 2:24 left in the opening quarter.
But Boado responded with a 3-pointer from the top of the key and Makayla Gotter (4 points) added a pair from the charity stripe to give the Chargers an 11-6 lead after one.
That grew to a first-half high of 12 at 22-10 before Ava Sevcik drilled her only basket of the night, a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it 22-13 at the break.
Dundee-Crown was also a model of consistency for the game scoring 11 points in each of the first three quarters before popping for 14 in the fourth. And their defensive consistency was evident as well - the Gators tallied six points in the first frame, seven each in the second and third, and eight in the finale.