Chargers bounce back with victory

After Thursday night's disappointing loss to Mundelein, Dundee-Crown's girl basketball team viewed its match up with Grayslake North as a "must win" Friday.

"We knew we had to come out tonight and make a statement," said Chargers' guard Kathleen Collingbourne.

The Chargers (7-3) made a statement early as they raced out to a 14-4 start, while forcing 22 turnovers in a 52-42 victory over Grayslake North in a Fox Valley Conference crossover matchup in Carpentersville.

"We just wanted to bounce back from the loss against Mundelein. We know we had a better team than what the box score showed," said Robyn Staudenmaier, who had a game-high 19 points along with 5 assists and 4 rebounds.

"It's nice to come back from the game we played (Thursday) night," said Chargers' coach Joe Komaromy.

Dundee-Crown proved early on, forcing 13 first-half turnovers, that it meant business on the defensive end. Staudenmaier pumped in 7 first-half points and Collingbourne knocked down three 3-pointers, accounting for 18 of their team's 32 first-half points.

Staudenmaier controlled the rest of the game, scoring 12 of the Chargers' 20 second-half points. She knocked down a jumper to start the fourth quarter to expand the Chargers' lead to 12, their biggest of the night.

Trailing by 11 with 3:15 remaining, Grayslake North (3-6) made a late run that kept the game close.

"They kept making runs at us. We had enough cushion there so when they hit some of those threes, we still had a four-point lead, and that helps a bit," said Komaromy.

The Knights' Natalie Barczyk, who finished with a team-high 16 points, hit two 3-pointers in a 9-2 run that cut the deficit to 4 with 1:38 to play. However, turnovers and fouls piled up as the Chargers' defensive pressure picked up and not allowed the Knights to get a point the rest of the way.

"We knew they'd shoot a lot of threes, and we wanted to keep that down," said Staudenmaier.

"We shot it well tonight; we're still evolving into a team," said Grayslake North coach Jim Sarver.

Though there was no offense from Collingbourne in the second half, she used her hustle to good use.

"She does a lot of things that don't go into the scorebook. She's really the heart and soul of our team," said Komaromy.

Collingbourne would finish with 12 points and center Kate-Leigh Pilson added 10 points and 7 rebounds for the Chargers.