Crystal Lake South reaches Dundee-Crown semifinals
Unselfishness.
With 13 assists on 20 baskets, Crystal Lake South's teamwork was crucial in a 50-40 win over Resurrection in quarterfinal action of the 33rd Annual
Charger Classic Christmas girls basketball tournament hosted by Dundee-Crown Monday night.
The Gators advance to the semifinals to play top-seeded New Trier Tuesday at 8 p.m.
"We emphasize to the team if we execute against their zone and have good ball movement we can get good shots," said South coach Mark Mucha, "We did a great job of finding the open player and got a lot of easy shots."
Resurrection actually got off to a great start jumping out to a 8-2 lead courtesy of a pair of 3-pointers from Gabriella Galassini with 4:22 left in the first quarter.
But the rest of the contest belonged to the Gators.
During the final 11:38 of the first half, South outscored the Bandits 24-4 and led 26-12 at intermission. During the pivotal surge, Chanel Fanter scored 9 points with 6 assists while Annika Sevcik tallied 7 points with 3 assists.
"A lot of people think of Chanel as strictly a scorer but she does a great job when she attracts a double team to find the open person," said Mucha. "She sees the whole court very well."
The Gators' biggest advantage of the game was 20, 47-27, with 4:20 remaining after a layup from Fanter off an assist by Taylor Keegan.
The Bandits, who connected on 8-of-27 from 3-point range for 30 percent, didn't give up.
Three treys by Nicole Kuzmanic spurred a 11-0 run by Resurrection that cut the Gator lead to 47-38 with 1:56 left.
But the Bandits couldn't get any closer.
Fanter, who played all 32 minutes, paced the Gators with 21 points, 8 assists and 9 rebounds while Sevcik added 11 points with 8 rebounds.
"It was a great win for the team," said Sevcik. "We had great ball movement and did a great job of finding the open player."
In their first appearance in many years at the Charger Classic, Mucha is happy his team is playing in the semifinals.
"This tournament has so many great teams," said Mucha. "It is a great accomplishment to advance to the semifinals. We showed our inexperience a little in the fourth quarter. But hopefully we can learn from it."
New Trier 48, St. Charles North 32: Claire Jakaitis had 13 points and Morgan Rosencrants added 9 points and 11 rebounds but the North Stars (7-3) fell to the top-seeded Trevians in the quarterfinals. Jeannie Boehm led New Trier with 21 points and 8 rebounds. SCN will play Resurrection in the consolation bracket at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Bartlett 50, Maine South 42: Kaitlin Brohan scored 16 points to lead Bartlett (8-5) to a consolation bracket win at Dundee-Crown. Kelly Hare and Shelley Lyjak added 9 points each for Bartlett while Nicole Gerdevich and Kelly Harris had 8 each.
Burlington Central 49, Barrington 35: Becca Gerke had 15 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Rockets (8-1) to the consolation bracket win. Sam Pryor added 13 points for BC and Kayla Ross had 10, bringing her career total to 907. Shelby Holt also added 9 points for BC.
Prospect 56, Dundee-Crown 47: Melissa Barker scored 17 points and Allison Michalski added 10 for D-C (7-11).