Prairie Ridge gets hot, shoots past Dundee-Crown

Prairie Ridge was searching for some confidence from behind the 3-point arc, and junior guard John Fuery was more than happy to supply it.

Fuery nailed a 3-pointer 20 seconds into the game, then hit another in the first minute, setting the tone for the night as the Wolves kept hitting from the outside.

Prairie Ridge connected on a season-high 12 3s to defeat Dundee-Crown 60-50 Wednesday in their Fox Valley Conference boys basketball game.

Fuery made half of those and finished with his career-high 20 points for the Wolves (4-5, 2-3 FVC).

"In warmups I was kind of feeling it," Fuery said. "Came out, got hot, missed a couple, but got back in the rhythm in the second half and started hitting. Everyone was contributing, a bunch of drive-and-kicking running the offense, hitting open shots.

"It boosts your confidence through the roof. All you want to do is score."

Wolves coach Ryan Smith feels like his team has good outside shooters, but Prairie Ridge recently had some poor shooting games against Crystal Lake South and Burlington Central.

"We've been trying to build up their confidence as much as we possibly can," Smith said. "We have some guys who can shoot it. We told guys that we run pretty good stuff on offense and if you pass up an open look, that hurts us. If you get an open look, shoot it with some confidence.

"We're trying to build these guys up. Tonight they had some fun and shot it."

D-C (3-5, 2-3) came back with some strong outside shooting of its own and led 19-16 with 5:09 left in the first half after Zach Randl's 3. The Wolves closed the half with a 10-2 run and never trailed the rest of the game.

Fuery hit a 3, Samuel Loeding tipped in his own miss on a 3 and Kevin Fist hit a 3 in the last 2:10 of the second quarter. The Wolves forced seven D-C turnovers in the second quarter.

"It's all about hustle," said Loeding, who scored 14. "I had no one closing out or boxing out. I adjusted and knew my shot was off if I went to the rim. You feel the shift."

Randl led D-C with 17 points, Tyler DiSilvio and Kali Freeman each scored 11.

"We go a little stagnant (in the second quarter). I don't know why that is," Chargers coach Lance Huber said. "(Prairie Ridge) played really well tonight. It seemed like every time they needed to make a shot they made one. If they missed, they got the offensive rebound. We missed a lot of bunnies.

"They made plays and we didn't. They made shots and we didn't, and that's kind of the name of the game."

Fuery had a 3 in every quarter. He hit one with 1:40 to go in the fourth for a 55-44 lead and another in the final minute.

"We had two really good practices, Monday and Tuesday, really intense," Fuery said. "Came out here and played a really intense competitive game and took it home."

James Muse grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds for the Wolves and Drake Tomasiewicz scored nine points off the bench.

"We just need to take care of the ball better," Loeding said. "That's a big reason we had our two losses against South and Burlington. We came into this game with a big chip on our shoulder and I'm glad with how we performed.

"We're a team that can compete with the best teams in this conference. I'm glad that we executed tonight."