Dundee-Crown falls to Sycamore

Perhaps the best indication of Dundee-Crown's improvement is an utter disdain for a moral victory.

When the Chargers opened the previous year against Sycamore, the host of the Leland G. Strombom Holiday Tournament, the 46-point loss was the first of 11 straight.

Fast forward to the 2016-17 opener and its hard to imagine Dundee-Crown's 47-34 loss Monday to Sycamore will be followed by a similar drought.

"We're not interested in moral victories," 14th-year veteran D-C coach Lance Huber insisted. "We made too many errors, but they're correctable, so we make those corrections and we'll be OK."

The game began as a long-distance shootout with Sycamore's Ethan Heinrich nailing a 3-pointer from the left corner before Jack Orndahl responded from the left wing for Dundee-Crown (0-1). The Charger sharpshooter added two more to keep it close at 10-9, but Jack Mizgalski hit a trio of 3s plus another field goal in leading the Spartans (1-0) to a 16-11 lead.

"Being the first game and this being Sycamore's tournament, it was important to set the tone early and match them," Orndahl noted. "But it's not about 3s, it's about better defense and get others involved on offense. We can only build on this game."

The Chargers continually limited Mizgalski's output from 11 first quarter points to 5, then 2, and none for the fourth quarter.

"We wanted to make him dribble, because he wasn't as effective when he couldn't catch and shoot," Huber explained. "We were down 12 (29-17) at the half and cut it to nine; then down 11 (37-26) after three. But then they got a couple opportunistic baskets plus we let them have the baseline and let them dribble all over. We've got to get tougher."

Three straight baskets boosted the Sycamore lead to 17 (43-26) before Khiry Powell hit a 3 from right of the key. Two Spartan free throws later, Orndahl nailed his fourth 3 of the night as part of his team-best 14 points. However the Chargers' scoring dropped off to 6 from Bradley Stec and 4 from Brett Buske.