Dundee-Crown 35, Huntley 31

Dundee-Crown again had trouble scoring, so the Chargers had to find another way to win.

Good defense usually works.

Jeff Beck scored a game-high 10 points and the Chargers held Huntley to 24 percent shooting in a 35-31 victory in a Fox Valley Conference crossover boys basketball game in Carpentersville Friday night.

The game was a rematch of last Saturday's third-place game at the Sycamore tournament, which Huntley won 45-42.

Huntley scored 15 points in the third quarter, taking a 27-25 lead on a Brett DePorter 3-pointer. A putback by Freddie Parson tied it up after 3, and the Chargers held the Red Raiders scoreless for the first 7 minutes of the fourth quarter while grabbing a 32-27 lead.

Huntley (3-2) got to within 32-29 on a basket by Diego Quintero, but the Chargers effectively put the game away with 3 free throws. Beck made 2 after a technical foul on the Huntley bench with 27 seconds left.

"We have some work to do offensively, obviously," said D-C coach Lance Huber. "That's just kind of the makeup of our team this year. Last year, we had a lot of guys who could score. This year we're still trying to find our roles."

Beck also had 5 rebounds and 3 assists. Parson had 8 points and 8 rebounds off the bench, and Charles Kimbrough had 8 points and 3 blocks for the Chargers.

The Chargers (2-2) don't have a top gun, at least yet, so they're trying to use their defense to create scoring chances.

"We know we don't have that one big scorer," Beck said. "So we try to use our quickness to pressure ballhandlers and create as many turnovers as we can."

Quintero and Dan Regan led Huntley with 6 points apiece. Jordan Neukirch had 5 points and 5 rebounds for the Red Raiders.

"I just don't think we're a good offensive team yet," said Huntley coach Marty Manning. "Obviously, they spend a lot of time in practice on defense like we do, but we're not where we need to be (offensively) yet."