Hot-shooting Chargers knock off Larkin
Dundee-Crown girls basketball coach Joe Komaromy doesn't mind his team's fast pace most of the time. But he'd like to see the Chargers slow it down when that time comes.
"Sometimes we go at 85 but we need to get it back to 65 when we've got the lead," Komaromy said.
The Chargers heeded their coach's words in time Wednesday night to come away with a hard-fought 64-47 nonconference win at Larkin.
"When we slow it down we're not too bad," Komaromy smiled. "It was nice to see us come out focused tonight. We executed well on offense and got the open shots."
D-C (4-1) was on fire early on, especially from long range. The Chargers buried six of their eight 3-pointers in the game in the first half and carried a 32-24 lead into the break. Junior guard Melissa Summaria and senior workhorse Kathleen Collingbourne each made three 3-pointers in the first half as Dundee-Crown shot a blistering 60 percent (12 of 20) from the floor in the first 16 minutes. The Chargers finished the game hitting 23 of 43 shots for 53 percent.
"I can't say enough about Kathleen Collingbourne," said Komaromy of his floor general, who had 13 points, 5 assist and 2 steals. "She just leaves it all on the floor."
Larkin, which was seeking its first win of the season, wasn't about to lie down and play dead, even after D-C opened up a 15-point lead at 43-28 after a bucket by senior Robyn Staudenmaier with 1:50 left in the third quarter. Staudenmaier, who is coming back after missing most of her junior season with an ACL injury, led the Chargers with 17 points, 15 of them in the second half. She also had 3 blocks, 4 assists and 3 steals.
"She's coming along," Komaromy said of the 6-foot Staudenmaier. "By January she should be all the way back."
Larkin (0-6) fought its way back into the game in the final 2 minutes of the third quarter. The Royals used 2 free throws from senior Sophie Sterricker, a Monica Hurtado basket and then buckets from Laura Kay (8 points) and Sterricker (8 points) to close the gap to 43-37 entering the fourth quarter.
With Sterricker, Kay and scoring leader Alyssa Burns all battling foul trouble, the Royals hung tough and trailed just 52-47 after 2 free throws from Burns (23 points, 9 steals) with 2:11 to play, but in the final 2 minutes D-C's depth and ability to control the basketball won out.
"The effort is there," said Larkin coach Amy Silverman, whose team travels to Elgin to open the Upstate Eight Conference season Friday. "Obviously we're a young out there but we play hard. We play very hard. We just make too many mistakes. We didn't box out and we had too many turnovers. We let (Dundee-Crown) push us around out there."
Silverman was pleased again with the play of Burns but said she now needs Burns' teammates to step up.
"(Burns) is obviously a tough kid," Silverman said. "She's a competitor. The problem is we have to start making shots. We missed a lot tonight, especially around the basket."
To witness, the Royals shot 19-for-52 for the game. They were just 9 of 31 in the second half.
The Chargers scored the final 12 points of the game, 6 on free throws.
Summaria added a stellar game for D-C with 16 points, 6 steals and 6 assists while senior Rachel Wilhelmi and junior Alex Lococo came off the bench to add 8 points each. Wilhelmi also had 10 rebounds as D-C won the glass war 34-25.
"Rachel was a starter last year and she's been getting a little impatient about playing time, which is understandable," said Komaromy, whose team returns home to play Huntley Saturday night in a Fox Valley Conference crossover.
"But both her and Lococo came off the bench tonight and did a nice job for us."