Stevenson handles Dundee Crown; Sawyer adds to her 1,000
Midway through the second quarter, Stevenson led Dundee-Crown 23-21. By halftime, the Patriots had stretched their advantage to 39-21. Stevenson scored the final 16 points of the half and that was pretty much the ballgame as the Patriots cruised to a 70-48 nonconference girls basketball win in Carpentersville Saturday afternoon.
Ava Bardic, with 17 points, led four players in double figures and added 4 assists for the Patriots.
The Patriots were deadly from 3-point range, hitting 9 on the day, and their aggressive pressure defense forced the Chargers into 26 turnovers and created some easy layups at the other end.
The Patriots (7-0) led most of the first half. But after Gianine Boado's 3-pointer cut the lead to 23-21, the Patriots exploded. They did so by just going back to the basics on defense.
"We called a timeout there and just reviewed our defensive principals," said Stevenson coach Ashley Graham. "They have some really nice players in [Alyssa] Crenshaw and Boado and at times we kind of lost sight of our help side and how to defend that. But credit our kids for making those adjustments."
Three-pointers by Bardic and Lydia Lueck got the run going, and 4 turnovers forced by the defense helped keep it going.
Emory Klatt added 15 points and 9 rebounds for the Patriots. Kendell Williams scored 13. Simone Sawyer, one game after scoring her 1,000th career point, had 11 more.
"Simone, to do it that early in her junior year, in just her sixth game," Graham said, "Simone is just a tremendous athlete, but what I think is more impressive is just how fundamentally sound she is and how much she's grown in her game outside of attacking the rim. Her 3-point shot, every time it goes up, I think it's going in. She's just such a tough guard because she can take it to the rim and then stop and hit a 3. And a wonderful kid."
Crenshaw and Boado each scored 16 points for D-C (3-3). Crenshaw also grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Katherine Raby had 8 points and 8 boards for the Chargers.
Boado and Crenshaw scored all the points in an 11-3 run to open the fourth quarter that made the score 63-44, forcing Graham to call timeout and put her starters back in to stem the tide.
"We knew going into it that we had to play four quarters of good basketball," said D-C coach Sarah Teipel. "Our defense just wasn't there. Credit to them, though, they played four intense quarters of good basketball.
"We talked about controlling the pace and slowing it down a little bit. Unfortunately, we allowed them to spread the gap based on some plays and breakdowns. We want to play teams like that. It's a good learning lesson for us, and we've got to get a little tougher. If we can put four quarters of tough basketball together, then we can play with teams like that."