Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown
Buffalo Grove girls basketball team's "Win one for the Coach" tour at the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic continued with an impressive victory stop Friday.
Hall of Fame coach Tom Dineen, who will be honored before tonight's game by the Charger Classic tourney officials, watch his nationally-ranked bunch race past Resurrection 65-36 in the semifinals.
The Bison (15-0) will meet state-ranked Fenwick (15-2) for the title today at 8 p.m.
"It's Mr. Dineen's last year and it would be great to get him this championship for the first time in his career," said Bison sophomore guard Heather Nisbet, who sure helped get the Bison closer to that goal with a career and game-high 17 points.
"We're excited about this opportunity (to play Fenwick). We just want to get it for Mr. Dineen."
Dineen has watched his top-ranked Class 4A team defeat a Catholic school for the fourth time in six games (Marist, Regina, Mother McAuley the previous) and now draw another one today for the title match up.
Fenwick defeated New Trier in the other semifinal.
Coincidentally, the Bison will also host Fenwick Thursday in a Sweet Sixteen contest to be televised lived by Comcast.
As they have done in most of their 16 wins, the Bison forged to a big early lead and never looked back.
Maggie Mocchi and Nisbet each hit 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Bison built a 17-3 lead.
"We have watched them and they've started every game like that," said Resurrection coach Kerry Durham, whose club is 12-4. "We gave them too much confidence early and we didn't play with confidence. A lot of it was our own doing. We just put ourselves into too big of a hole."
Ellen Ayoub added 16 points and 5 rebounds for BG, followed by Maggie Mocchi ( 10 pots, 3 steals) and Allison Mocchi (9 points, 3 steals).
DePaul-bound Deanna Ortiz of Resurrection finished with 6 points. Ortiz' tenth rebound made her the school's all-time leader with 574 career.
"Kaitlin Hillner (5 points, 3 steals, 3 rebounds, 2 assists) shut down one of the top players (Ortiz) in Illinois," Dineen said. "What an effort. And it seemed like Heather (Nisbet) was all over the place.
"What a team effort. The kids impressed the heck out of me."
Fenwick 72, New Trier 39: Katlyn Payne and Fenwick want Buffalo Grove.
Never taking their eyes off of the prize, the Friars ran out to a 20-6 first-quarter lead before routing New Trier 72-39 in semifinal action at the 25th annual Charger Classic in Carpentersville. The rematch of the last two Charger Classic championships did not prove much of a challenge for Fenwick (14-2) with Payne (14 points), sophomore Tricia Liston (19 points) and junior Serafina Nuzzo (12 points, 4 assists, 3 steals) all tallying double-digits.
"It's something we need to prove," Payne said of the Buffalo Grove matchup. "We really needed to beat (New Trier), but the biggest game is (today). We wanted to play for first."
Fenwick did not waste much time. Liston scored the game's first 7 points on an assist from Nuzzo and two inside passes from Payne.
Fenwick forced New Trier (11-6) to turn the ball over 7 times in the first quarter. By halftime, Liston had 14 points and Fenwick owned a 39-16 lead.
The Friars went on a 12-2 run in the final 4:27 of the first half with Liston and Payne each scoring 5 points. Fenwick shot 8 of 18 from the floor in the second period.
"We played really well as a team," said Payne, who added 4 steals.
The Trevians were without senior Megan Napoli, who popped her left knee cap out in Thursday's win over Naperville Central. Without their leading scorer, New Trier got 10 points from Molly Quirke.
-- Matt Stacionis
Johnsburg 58, Dundee-Crown 55: All Dundee-Crown girls basketball coach Joe Komaromy wants at the end of the game is for his team to be in a position to win.
The Chargers found themselves in that position in the closing seconds of Friday's third-round game against Johnsburg at the 25th Annual Charger Classic, sponsored by the Daily Herald.
Johnsburg guard Courtney Bielis was also in a position to win the game. Bielis, who notched her first career varsity start, picked off the Chargers' inbound pass and ran the length of the court securing a 58-55 victory.
"This morning I was told I was going to start," said Bielis, who finished 6 of her 10 points in the first quarter. "I just wanted to help the team."
Dundee-Crown (7-7) was down 54-44 when Johnsburg's Michelle McDonald (28 points, 12 rebounds) sank a pair of free throws with 3:17 left to go.
D-C would go on an 11-2 run in a 2 minute, 12 second span in the fourth quarter culminating with Kathleen Collingbourne's 3-pointer with 44 seconds left.
Collingbourne (11 points, 3 steals) brought D-C back to 56-55 when she banked in the long range bomb. The shot was set up by Alex Lococo's fourth steal and third assist of the game. Lococo (8 points) and Melissa Summaria (4 assists, 3 steals) helped spearhead the Chargers' comeback run.
"Alex has worked very hard to get herself in the starting lineup and she does a lot of good things out there," Komaromy said. "We're a better team when she's in there."
Lococo and Summaria provided the steals and assists and center Kate-Leigh Pilson and Robyn Staudenmaier put in the points. Pilson finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds and Staudenmaier finished with 13 points and 9 rebounds.
Staudenmaier made a pair of free throws to bring D-C back to 56-52 with 1:07 left. Pilson brought the Chargers to 56-50 with an offensive putback. The duo had 6 points apiece during the Chargers' 18-point second quarter as well, with D-C tying the game at 25 at halftime.
Leading 39-38 at the beginning of the end of the third quarter, Johnsburg (6-8) went on an 11-1 run to extend its lead to 50-39. Point guard Megan Lopez sparked the run when she found Melissa Dixon (10 points) for a 3-pointer to put the Skyhawks up 42-38.
Lopez (5 points, 5 assists, 4 steals) then stole a ball and found McDonald. The Chargers turned the ball over 5 times in their first 7 possessions in the final period.
"We had a lot of passes that were iffy," Pilson said. "We should have won that game."
Maine West 69, Regina 44: Brittany Begrowicz finished with a game-high 31 points to boost Maine West to victory. Mary Kusner added 11 points. Regina Dominican was led by Brittany Johnson, scoring 13 points. Krystle Harvey put 9 points on the board for Regina.
SCN 60, Bartlett 45: Second verse, same as the first.
Two weeks after its 58-40 Upstate Eight Conference girls basketball victory over Bartlett, St. Charles North nearly duplicated the feat Friday, knocking off the Hawks 60-45 in the third day of the 25th Annual Charger Classic Tournament held at Dundee-Crown.
With the win, the North Stars (10-3) advance to today's 2 p.m. consolation championship against Evanston. Bartlett (5-10) will play Hononegah at 12:30 p.m.
"Getting to the consolation championship is very rewarding for the girls," said North Stars coach Katie Sauber, whose team opened the tourney with a tough-luck, 54-52 loss to Naperville Central Wednesday.
"You've got to win every single game after that (first-round loss) in order to win the consolation championship."
Led by 6-foot-4 junior center Kelsey Smith and 5-6 point guard Kiley Hackbarth, the North Stars relied on an inside-outside game to expose the Hawks' defense.
Smith scored 14 of her game-high 18 points in the first half, while Hackbarth added 9 of her 15 points in the opening quarter.
"They have a good 1-2 punch with their point guard (Hackbarth) and their center (Smith)," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "Those two kids were definitely on today."
With her team leading 11-9, Hackbarth canned a pair of 3-point baskets and converted a three-point play to fuel an 11-4 run over the final 1:50 of the first quarter. The North Stars led 22-13 after one quarter.
In the second quarter, Smith scored 8 points as St. Charles North held a comfortable 40-26 lead at the break.
"We were certainly not trying to ignore those players," Sarna said of Hackbarth and Smith. "We tried to limit the touches that she (Smith) got but playing them before we knew that they have outside shooters, too, so you can't pack it in against them."
While continuing to push the pace, the North Stars also were efficient at the free-throw line, sinking all 11 first-half attempts.
"Kiley was seeing the court very well," said Sauber, "and Kelsey did a nice job with a couple girls hanging on her the entire time.
"We wanted to get up and down the court pretty quickly and we wanted to control the tempo of the game. The girls were able to do that today."
The North Stars led by as many as 19 at 52-33 late in the third quarter before Sauber emptied her bench. Sophomore Jenna Bell led the reserves with 8 points.
The lone negative for St. Charles North occurred late in the first half when senior reserve Annie Bialek suffered an apparent shoulder injury during a loose ball scramble.
"She's been getting some more playing time so that was bad to see," said Sauber.
Becca Cronin scored 15 points to lead Bartlett.
"We felt the last time we played that we kind of helped them to win," said Sarna. "This time, I think they beat us. They were a better team than us today."
Evanston 59, Hononegah 51: Darcel Retreage led Evanston to victory with her 20-point offensive effort. Collier Clegg contributed 15 points for the Wildkits, and Kim Davis added nine.
Natalie Johnson scored a team-high 16 points for Hononegah, while Courtney Shelton added 10 points for the Lady Indians.
McAuley 53, Fremd 42: Mother McAuley's team effort helped boost the Mighty Macs to victory. Maureen Sullivan contributed 12 points. Jen Moriarty finished with 10 points. Sophie Newson had 8 points, and Kayla Tisza had 7 points.
Dani Videka led Fremd with 11 points, while Tracey Nachtsheim added 8 points.
Naperville Central 59, Prospect 41: Naperville Central jumped ahead 14-4 and never looked back to improve to 12-4 and 2-1 in the tourney.
Lisa Lawrence scored scored 18 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while Emma Ondik added 10 points for the Redhawks.
Eastern Illinois-bound Jessica Carter tossed home 6 points and grabbed 7 rebounds as the Redhawks outrebounded Prospect 35-25.
"The biggest thing is that we didn't rebound," said Knights coach Martha Kelly. "We gave the three, four or five opportunities each time down the floor."
Both team took 56 shots from the floor. Prospect made 15 and Naperville converted 23.
"Their shots were going in and they were playing with confidence," Kelly added. "But rebounding was the big difference. That's all I can say."
Freshman Sarah Winans led the Knights with 11 points while sophomore Rachel Hunt added 10 with 9 rebounds. Danielle Brucci and Lexi Glennon (5 rebounds) each had 3 assists while Alyssa Glennon also had 5 rebounds.
"We saw Prospect against Fenwick and we knew we were up against a good team," Carter said. "We were definitely disappointed in our game against New Trier and we wanted to show what we could do."
Redhawks coach Andy Nussbaum said the difference between his team from Thursday to Friday was like "night and day".
"We were so much better (Friday)," the coach said. "We got the ball inside and Kelly Hendricks (3 assists) made some nice passes, some to Claire (Fleming , who had 9 points), some to Jess (Carter)."
"Unfortunately we weren't playing in the 8 p.m. game (semifinals) but we showed people what we were capable of doing in this game."
-- John Leusch
Compiled by Jaci Corn