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Dundee-Crown closes strong, tops Crystal Lake South

At halftime, with Dundee-Crown nursing a slim 4-point 19-15 lead, coach Sarah Miller encouraged her Chargers to play with more fire and intensity in the second half.

D-C certainly heeded Miller's words of wisdom.

Scoring the first 8 points of the second half, D-C was eventually able to cruise past Crystal Lake South 46-31 in Fox Valley Conference action in Carpentersville Tuesday night.

Propelled by 2 baskets from Cassidy Randl, a putback by Alyssa Crenshaw and 2 free throws by Payton Schmidt, D-C (12-2, 6-0) was able to turn a 4-point lead to a 27-15 advantage with 5:56 left in the third quarter.

The first points of the second half for the Gators came on a layup from Kyra Swartz off an assist by Emily Rich with 4:41 left to slice the deficit to 27-17.

"I thought we played with a lot of intensity to start the game," said Miller. "We held them to 6 points in the first quarter but lost some momentum in the second quarter. We wanted our team to attack the basket to start the second half and we wanted to run our sets. I thought we shared the ball better."

The Gators kept whittling away at the lead and got to within 33-28 on a reverse layup from Brooke Kuffel with 6:22 left in the contest.

The Gators couldn't get any closer.

Catapulted by 9 points from Crenshaw, the Chargers end the game on a 13-3 surge to win by 15.

"I thought we played hard in the first half and were very very patient on offense," said Crystal Lake South coach Mark Mucha. "We had the game at our pace. Their 8-0 run to start the second half was key. It is hard to play catch up against a team like Dundee-Crown. We weathered the storm but a lack of offense really hurt us. They are so physical and their seniors play with so much poise. They are so well coached. There is a reason they are undefeated in the FVC."

Crenshaw, with a huge fourth quarter, paced the Chargers with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

"She (Crenshaw) is a tough matchup for us," said Mucha. "She has such strong moves to the basket."

Payton Schmidt added 8 for the Chargers while Cassidy Randl scored 7 and Katelyn Skibinski (5 assists) along with Makayla Gotter (8 rebounds) scored 6 apiece.

"The Gators were closing the gap in the second half and coach (Miller) told us at halftime we needed to play with more intensity," said Skibinski. "We came out fired up in the second half and played with more of a team mentality."

Kuffel paced the Gators with 8 points while Swartz and Allison Schoen scored 6 apiece.

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