Wrap: Wolves post victory as D-C struggles with shooting
Dundee-Crown's girls basketball team learned first-hand Wednesday what happens when shots don't fall.
First, the Chargers' shots were off to the left. Then they were off to the right. Then they caught glass, but wouldn't fall in. Usually shooting lights out, Dundee-Crown lives off Kathleen Collingbourne and Robyn Staudenmaier draining big shots. Wednesday night it wasn't so.
The lights were indeed on, though, and Prairie Ridge (5-6) used its post game to defeat the Chargers 34-31 in a Fox Valley Conference crossover match up in Crystal Lake.
After the Chargers trailed by 9 at the half, they stormed out to a 12-0 run with Staudenmaier leading the way. She would convert a three-point play to give the Chargers a 22-19 lead midway through the third.
It was finally clicking for the Chargers (7-4), even as Collingbourne started to find her shot. The interior was an advantage for Dundee-Crown coming in, but PR's Emily Murphy didn't think so, as she took over when it looked like the Chargers had the game in their grasp.
"The last four games now, she's had 13, 15, 17 and now 15 again. She's been a huge force," said Wolves coach Steven Rick.
Going on a tear of late, Wednesday was no exception for Murphy. Along with her 9 rebounds, Murphy quickly ended any comeback by the Chargers by scoring 6 of her game-high 15 points late in the third quarter.
After Staudenmaier hit 2 free throws to extend the Charger lead to 3, Murphy ended the quarter with 2 layups and continued on in the fourth, draining another layup right off the bat to put the Wolves up 4. Nobody could answer Murphy, and the Chargers couldn't stage a fourth-quarter comeback.
"You hold the team to 34 points, that's pretty good defense," said Chargers coach Joe Komaromy. "You've got to score more than 31 points."
Rick stressed to his team that it had to limit scoring from the Chargers' big three -- Staudenmaier, Collingbourne and Kate Pilson.
"Our game plan was to shut down Collingbourne, Staudenmaier and Pilson. Our defensive pressure and game plan took them out of what they wanted to do," said Rick.
Collingbourne scored 7 points and Pilson added 6 points and 11 rebounds for the Chargers.
Boys basketball
Oak Park 62, Streamwood 40: Oak Park-River Forest showed Streamwood exactly what it was known for.
The Huskies, led by Georgia Tech-bound Emon Shumpert, forced 30 Streamwood turnovers and used an explosive second-quarter to take a 62-40 nonconference victory at Streamwood.
Streamwood's Kyle Holder tied the game at 15 with 4:52 remaining in the second period. That would be Streamwood's final first-half points as the Sabres (3-7) managed just 5 shots and 11 turnovers over in the rest of the half.
Oak Park (8-4) guard Marcus Acree was just getting started.
Acree scored 11 points as the Huskies closed the first half out with a 16-0 run. Acree finished with a game-high 22 points off the bench.
"We've been averaging under 20 turnovers a game," Streamwood coach Tim Jones said. "That was the ball game right there. Most of the time we've been taking care of the ball."
Luckily the Sabres don't face OP-RF most of the time.
Of Streamwood's 30 turnovers, 18 were Huskies' steals. Adam Taylor finished with 6 steals and Shumpert finished with 5.
Streamwood's inefficiency to get the offense going took its toll on the Sabres.
"We kept turning the ball over," Streamwood guard Tem Esikiel said. "It frustrated me, it frustrated the team. They have a really good defense. (Shumpert) can jump out of the gym."
Esikiel got Streamwood back into the game, scoring 13 of his 18 points in the second half. After going 1 of 5 from 3-point land in the first half, Esikiel (4 assists, 2 steals) connected twice in the third quarter.
T.J. Enno (10 points, 7 rebounds) brought Streamwood to within 46-34 with 6:22 left in the fourth quarter, but that was as close as the Sabres would get in the second half.
Shumpert (12 points, 6 points) showed why he has an ACC future, scoring on an offensive putback and then grabbing a steal and running the length of the court and slamming in his second dunk of the night.
"With us playing our defense, we can get a lot of hands on the ball." Shumpert said. "We didn't have one of our best shooting days."
The Huskies shot 36.9 percent (24 of 65) in the game and went a dismal 28.3 percent (5 of 21) in the first quarter. Streamwood also struggled from the floor. Normally a 34 percent 3-point shooting team, the Sabres went 21 percent (4 of 19) from beyond the arc on Wednesday. Esikiel converted all 4 3-point baskets.
"We have to hit the outside shots," Jones said. "We had a slue of them."
-- Matt Stacionis
North Shore Country Day 59, Elgin Academy 37: In the Independent School League the Hilltoppers (1-8, 0-5) fell to North Shore Country Day. Drew Stuart led Elgin Academy with 8 points.
Girls basketball
Iroquois West 51, Elgin Academy 36: Despite a great effort by Elgin Academy in the last round of play in the Iroquois West Tournament the Hilltoppers (6-11) fell to Iroquois West. Alyssa Pena led Elgin Academy scoring 13 points. Bianca Swegler also added 10 points for EA.
Men's basketball
St. Francis 91, Judson 79: Turning the ball over 22 times resulted in 28 points for the University of St. Francis (4-8) as it overcame a 15-point deficit to take a 91-79 win over Judson University (5-5). St. Francis outscored Judson 56-37 in the second half after being down 7 at the half.
Joe Gonnam led Judson with 17 points and a career-high 14 rebounds while Ilija Bojanic had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Adding 14 points was DeWayne Robinson and Steffan Williams finished with 12. Justen Boyd added 10 points for the Eagles.