Burlington Central, Schmidt stun Dundee-Crown at buzzer

What a difference a year makes for Kat Schmidt and the Burlington Central Rockets.

Last season at Dundee-Crown, Schmidt suffered a knee injury that sidelined her for a large portion of her junior year in a one-sided loss for her team.

She left Carpentersville Wednesday night in entirely opposite fashion, draining a deep 3-pointer from the volleyball line at the buzzer to give Burlington Central an emotional 44-41 victory and hand the Chargers their first Fox Valley Conference loss.

Schmidt, a senior who will play at Lewis University next year and just moved into second place on the school's all-time scoring list, hit nothing but net on her shot and was quickly mobbed by teammates afterward.

"I thought it was short," Schmidt said. "I thought I just need to make this and when it went in the basket I was so relieved. Such a rush. This win is huge for us and hopefully this momentum carries us on."

Schmidt's shot saved the Rockets from what could have been a couple devastating collapses, the first an 11-point first half that the Chargers erased. Burlington Central rebuilt a 41-34 lead with four minutes to go only to see the Chargers again rally with 7 straight to tie the game.

Burlington Central inbounded to junior point guard Elana Wells with 8 seconds to go. She drove left and got two screens, the second from Schmidt who then popped out well beyond the top of the key.

Wells drew Schmidt's defender, then passed back to Schmidt who buried the shot.

"I heard Kat calling for it," Wells said. "I trust her so I gave her the ball and she hit the shot. That was amazing. I don't even know what to say. I'm so glad she hit that shot."

Rockets coach Collin Kalamatas drew the play up during the timeout.

"I give the credit to the girls," Kalamatas said. "We had never run that before, never practiced it before. It was just one of those let's see if we can make some magic here.

"We knew they (D-C) would have a lot of fight in them. Our girls found a way to respond."

Burlington Central (21-4, 10-2) pulled within a game of Dundee-Crown (19-6, 11-1) in the FVC race, avenging an earlier loss to the Chargers on the Rockets' home court. The Rockets also defeated the Chargers at DeKalb's MLK tournament.

Like the first meeting, tensions ran high throughout. Maddie Menke gave the Rockets a lift in the first half with 10 points as they took a 28-19 halftime lead.

Chargers leading scorer Alyssa Crenshaw picked up her third foul with 2:48 left in the first half and her fourth with 4 minutes to go in the third quarter when Reilli Gardner drew a charge. Makayla Gotter helped pick up the slack with 8 points but then she too picked up her fourth foul in the third quarter, as did Wells for the Rockets.

The Chargers pulled within 33-31 going to the fourth, then took their first lead since 4-2 when Gotter scored in the lane to make it 34-33.

Schmidt ended a long drought for the Rockets with a 3-pointer. On their next possession she found Zoey Kollhoff for another 3-pointer, and Schmidt followed with a drive for a 41-34 lead with 4:17 left.

But the Rockets didn't score again until Schmidt's buzzer-beater while the Chargers fought back on a pair of Katelyn Skibinski free throws, a basket by Gotter, and a clutch 3-pointer by Cassidy Randl that tied the game at 41-41 with 1:40 left.

The Chargers had a chance to take the lead but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 50 seconds to go, setting the stage for Schmidt's game-winner.

"My team plays with a lot of heart," Chargers coach Sarah Miller said. "The ability to battle back shows the heart we have.

"I give them (BC) credit, that was a heck of a shot, but that game wasn't won on that. There was a lot of things we could have done differently in the fist half."

Schmidt led both teams with 19 points and 9 rebounds, Menke scored 10 points and Wells had 7 points and 4 assists.

Randl, Gotter and Crenshaw all scored 8 points for the Chargers who will try to protect their 1-game FVC lead with six games remaining.

"A lot of tears in the locker room not because of that great shot at the end but because they wanted it that bad," Miller said. "The season wasn't ended on that loss. Still have a lot of high hopes. Still in front in conference. Still hungry every day in practice. Still going to be coached hard. Still humble. That's how we're going to move forward."