New Trier stops Crystal Lake South

Crystal Lake South girls basketball coach Mark Mucha knew his team was a bit of an underdog coming in against a team like New Trier, and the Trevians didn't do the Gators any favors in a 69-38 semifinal win of the 33rd Annual Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown Tuesday to advance to Wednesday's 8 p.m. final against Stevenson.

There was no way of replicating the Trevians' size, pace, experience, Katherine Pedi's 17 points and 6-foot-3 Jeannie Boehm's 14 points, or fighting off a furious press that forced 18 turnovers.

But playing for third place Wednesday against Buffalo Grove is not an easy feat with the deck stacked at D-C, so the loss provided many positives for CL South (13-5), which never led but battled throughout, even if it slipped behind 11-0 in the game's first 3 minutes.

"Whether we finish third or fourth, no matter what our kids need to be proud and I'm definitely proud of them to get as far as they've done already," Mucha said. "New Trier is a gifted team and they shot lights out. Our inexperience showed and we played at a different pace than we wanted to."

Chanel Fanter led South with 15 points to go along with 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks while Taylor Jozefowicz added 8 points. South only made 12 field goals on a 32.4 percent clip and was outrebounded 40-21.

But after Mucha called a timeout with 5:11 left in the first quarter, South settled down and showed life, outscoring New Trier 11-10 the rest of the quarter.

"We tried to stay out of the corners since it's a big trapping point and get the ball into middle for the floor," Fanter said. "We definitely know they're a highly-ranked team and that's why were in this tournament, we wanted to go up against good competition. I think once we got into our offense and calming down we got some decent shots."

South got as close as 21-11 to start the second quarter but it soon got away. Two subsequent corner jumpers by Pedi and Maggie Murdock gave New Trier (13-3), which won the tournament two years ago and finished second last year, a 17-point lead and the lead climbed to 20 at the half. Autumn Kalis added 14 points as the Trevians shot 43.3 percent from the floor, scoring 28 points in the paint, mainly off turnovers.

"I thought our pressure really hurt them," New Trier coach Teri Rodgers said. "When you've got (Boehm) at the top of that press, it's hard for anybody. She moves her feet well so I thought that was key for us to get that pressure up front and our players in the back played real aggressive. I thought that was the key to the game, getting into a tempo we wanted."