Dundee-Crown no match for New Trier
Dundee-Crown girls basketball coach Michelle Russell didn't have any visions of grandeur Monday when her Chargers met defending champion New Trier in the opening round of the 28th annual Charger Classic.
But Russell certainly does have higher hopes for the final three days of the tournament.
New Trier ran out to a 21-4 lead after one quarter and never looked back in downing the Chargers 51-22. Junior standout Maggie Lyon led the Trevians with 19 points.
“They played hard,” Russell said of her team. “Every (New Trier) girl has five inches on our whole team. (Lyon) is a phenomenal player. We had a tough time guarding her.”
Lyon scored 10 of her points in the first quarter, including hitting two 3-pointers, as the Trevians (9-4) were 9 of 13 from the floor in the first 8 minutes and 19-for-37 for the game.
New Trier will take on St. Charles North (6-5) in the 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal Tuesday.
“We had three keys offensively and three keys defensively and we did a good job today on all six of those things,” said New Trier coach Teri Rodgers.
Dundee-Crown (4-9) never gave up, despite facing a 20-point plus deficit for most of the game. The Chargers, who made just 10 of 50 shots and had 22 turnovers, were outscored just 19-12 in the second half.
Ali Sanders led D-C with 8 points and Carlin Faulkner had 7. Klaudia Tabor had 7 rebounds for the Chargers.
“I'm hoping we can get a couple wins here at the end of the week,” said Russell, whose team will face Resurrection in a 9:30 a.m. consolation bracket game Tuesday.
“Our kids don't give up and they never stop hustling. We're hoping that means we can get a couple this week.”
Rodgers now looks forward to her team taking the next step in defending its Charger Classic title.
“Every game we play is a learning process,” she said. “We want to be playing our best come state tournament time. We took a week of practice to work on the things we need to do to get better and at this tournament the idea is to get better and compete at the highest level.”