Huntley picks up its defense, downs D-C

Saturday night's Dundee-Crown vs. Huntley girls basketball game mirrored an image of the weather conditions in Carpentersville -- flat-out sloppy.

The court had to be slick; there were players sliding all over the hardwood. So had to be the basketball, which the players never had a great handle of. And even visibility, was poor as neither team ever had a clear path to the basket. Yet, the Red Raiders came out in the second half with the proper adjustments and limited turnovers to defeat the Chargers 44-37 in a Fox Valley Conference crossover game.

"It was a tough game, a physical game. I thought we did a pretty good job in the second half of attacking the press, we got some easy baskets, some layups off their press. Mostly, a nice job down the stretch finishing it off hitting some free throws," said Red Raiders coach Steve Raethz.

"But overall I think our defensive pressure was pretty good during the second half."

The defensive pressure proved strong as Katie Bergquist stole the ball and broke down the court for basket to give Huntley (3-2) a 5-point lead late in the third quarter. That would cap off her 8-point third quarter, after she sat most of the first half with foul trouble. Bergquist would finish with a team-high 13 points.

"In particular, I think Katie Bergquist did a really good job offensively of knocking down some shots," said Raethz.

"(Raethz) told me, 'keep looking for your shot,' " said Bergquist.

Yet, center Kate-Leigh Pilson kept the Chargers (4-2) in the game with 8 points of her own in the third. She finished with 15 points, but Pilson's effort wasn't enough to give the chance for the Chargers to win the game.

"We felt that Pilson played well tonight," said Chargers coach Joe Komaromy.

But Komaromy mentioned that his team just didn't get it done Saturday.

"I didn't like the way we played at all," he said. "Too many turnovers; we didn't play good basketball tonight. It's really disappointing how our kids played tonight."

Dundee-Crown cut the Red Raider lead to 1 early on in the fourth thanks to Robyn Staudenmaier, who muscled her way to the basket off her own miss. After the Red Raiders increased the lead to 6, Staudenmaier followed up a block on the defensive end with a 3-pointer, cutting the Huntley lead to 3.

Staudenmaier finished with 15 points and 8 rebounds for the Chargers but made an early exit when she committed her fifth foul during the fourth quarter.

Huntley sealed the game at the free throw line hitting 6 of its last 9.