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Campanelli sparks Huntley by Dundee-Crown

The moment wasn't too big for Huntley's Sammi Campanelli.

Campanelli, making her first varsity start, spent much of Wednesday chasing down Dundee-Crown four-year starter Gianine Boado. But when the sophomore got a chance to shine on offense, she didn't hold back.

Campanelli came up with a key steal with less than two minutes left, took the ball up court and hit a tough fallaway jumper while taking contact in the lane, breaking a tie and giving the Red Raiders their final lead.

Huntley held defending Fox Valley Conference champion Dundee-Crown to 4 points in the fourth quarter, and came away with a 38-33 win in the teams' FVC opener. It was Huntley's first victory over D-C in its last eight tries.

"I just saw the opportunity to take the ball and run," said Campanelli, who had 6 of her 8 points in the fourth quarter. "I think everyone kind of cheering together there really helped keep my head up and finish."

Campanelli's go-ahead basket with 1:35 remaining broke a tie at 32. She then stepped up and hit 2 free throws to give the Raiders a more comfortable lead, 36-32, with 50.3 seconds to go.

Huntley senior guard Raquel Radermacher, who scored a team-high 12 points and knocked down three 3-pointers, said that she was proud of how Campanelli didn't flinch.

"For her first varsity game, to be on Boado all night like that, I couldn't be prouder of Sammi," Radermacher said. "Just maintaining that effort. Every time I looked at her, I was like, 'Keep doing what you're doing,' and she just got after it. And then she made that real tough shot, and I was like, 'Alright, we've got this.' "

For awhile, it looked like the Raiders (1-0, 1-0) might not have enough offense to pull out the win, as they went scoreless for a span of more than 14 minutes between the second and fourth quarters.

Kendall Krich hit a big 3-pointer with 6:05 left in the fourth to break the dry spell for the Raiders, but Boado answered with a 3 to give D-C the lead at 32-29. Huntley, however, scored the next seven points, including six by Campanelli.

It did not help that Huntley was without sophomore forward Carley Faulkner, who is returning from ACL surgery, for much of the second half. Faulkner was taken out of the game as a precaution near the start of the third quarter, Raiders coach Steve Raethz said.

"I'm really proud of them, to come in here for their first game of the season, against a team the caliber of Dundee-Crown, as tough as they played, I was really proud of our girls for hanging in there for the full 32 minutes," Raethz said. "We kept pushing. I thought all of our kids were awesome tonight, all 13."

Faulkner recorded 8 points and 2 blocks for Huntley and Kamsi Nwogu added 6 points. D-C was led by Boado with 13 points and three 3s. Alyssa Crenshaw had 11 points and 11 rebounds, while Kendall Brents added 4 points in the loss.

"I felt like Huntley just played a super physical game," Chargers coach Sarah Teipel said. "I just felt like we didn't play four quarters of tough basketball. There were some key moments when we rushed our offense, when we needed to be more patient. I felt like we didn't get enough points at the rim."

Raethz was proud of how his team battled against Boado and Crenshaw, both four-year varsity players. Crenshaw was coming off a game with 30 points and 20 rebounds over the weekend (in a win over South Elgin), but was held scoreless in the fourth.

"I thought we just really did a great job of digging in," Raethz said. "I can't say enough about Raquel's leadership, and I though at Kamsi did a great job on Crenshaw, just really battled tonight. We had a lot of kids step up at a lot of different moments."

The win also helped erase some bad memories for Huntley, which lost to D-C in the Class 4A Huntley sectional semifinals a year ago.

"We lost to them on our home floor for sectionals, and that ate away at me," Radermacher said. "It continued to eat away at me, and I told my team before this, 'I want to get this one.' We didn't want them to win this one. We wanted this one, I think more."

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