Wrap: Pilson's big night lifts Chargers past Gators

Statistically speaking, both Crystal Lake South and Dundee-Crown made a claim to take a victory in Tuesday's game.

After trailing 22-12 at halftime, the Gators increased their defensive pressure and forced a whopping 22 turnovers in the second half.

The Chargers, however, owned an insurmountable 49-14 rebounding advantage, including 12-6 on the offensive glass. The boards and physical play allowed Dundee-Crown to take a 51-42 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victory in Carpentersville.

D-C (9-9, 2-1) was led by Kate-Leigh Pilson's career-high 16 rebounds, with Rachael Wilhelmi adding 12 boards and Robyn Straudenmaier finishing with 8. Cairlin Mize led South (14-6, 2-1) led South with 6.

"We weren't prepared for their physical nature and how they went after the ball," said South coach Kyle McCaughn, whose team's 8-game winning streak was snapped. "They got a body on us on every shot. We needed to be a little more mentally tough."

After scoring 20 points in the first three quarters, South put up 22 in the final period to come back to within 42-38 when Carly Juliano grabbed one of her 3 steals and ran the length of the court for a layup with 2:03 remaining.

Juliano (14 points) capped off a 13-3 South run. Staudenmaier sank a pair of free throws with 5:55 left in the fourth quarter which put the host Chargers up 39-25. The Gators then converted 4 of their 13 fourth-quarter turnovers into baskets. Overall, South scored 15 points off of turnovers in the fourth quarter.

The Gators forced 9 turnovers in the third period, but managed to score just 6 points off of the turnovers.

"We have to keep working on that and get better on that," D-C coach Joe Komaromy said. "We need to get all five people involved."

The Chargers got all five people involved on the free-throw line. Forced to foul in the final 2 minutes, D-C made 9 of 10 free throws. Pilson, who led all scores with 20 points, made all 6 of her free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.

"I'm not the greatest on free throws, so the last couple of weeks I've been working on those," Pilson said.

D-C finished the game 23 of 28 from the foul line, while South was 6 of 10. Of the Chargers' 16 fourth-quarter points, 14 came from the free-throw line.

Struggling to find her shot in the first half, Straudenmaier connected twice in the final 30 seconds. The senior forward extended the Chargers' lead to 20-12 with 30 seconds left on a jumper. She later scored on an offensive putback with 3 seconds to go putting D-C up 22-12 at the half.

"My shots weren't falling in the beginning," Staudenmaier said. "We knew we had to keep up our intensity and not let South back into the game."

Cary-Grove 57, McHenry 20: The defensive numbers are mind boggling.

Outscoring McHenry 31-2 in the first and fourth quarters the Trojans were able to stroll past the Warriors 57-20 in a Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game in McHenry Tuesday night.

"We had a little more ball pressure tonight and we trapped a little more," said Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert. "We threw in a few more wrinkles defensively. It was certainly a good defensive effort tonight."

Cary-Grove's stifling defense was on display from the beginning, scoring the first 11 points of the game, the Trojans (16-3, 3-0) held McHenry scoreless for the first 7 minutes and 42 seconds of the game before Maria Sorrentino hit a running layup with 18 seconds left.

Holding an 11-2 advantage after one quarter, the Trojans continued their dominance in the second quarter. With Meg Straumann scoring 8 points, the Trojans started the quarter on a 10-2 run and held a 21-4 advantage with 4:33 left before half.

McHenry pecked away at the Trojan lead and got to within 27-20 with 3:52 remaining in the quarter on a putback by Katlyn Halstead. Incredibly, those would be the last points the Warriors would score in the game.

The Trojans scored the final 10 points of the third quarter and outscored McHenry 20-0 in the fourth quarter in scoring the final 30 points of the game. McHenry, which misfired on its last 16 shots, didn't score In the final 11:52. The Warriors, who committed 28 turnovers, made only 7 of 45 shots for 15 percent. During the Trojans' 30-0 run, Danielle Smith canned a pair of 3-pointers for 6 points and sub Kelly Koch tallied 5 with a 3-pointer.

Jill Cole paced the Trojans with 14 points off the bench.

"I commend Jill's effort off the bench," said Saffert. I know she wants to start, but stats show she is better coming off the bench. She gives us a lot when she comes

in the game."

Straumann added 12 points with 3 assists and 3 steals while Smith scored 11 with three 3-pointers and dished out 6 assists.

"It is about time I hit some 3s" said Smith. "I have really struggled with my shooting lately. I have taken a lot of shots in practice and just have to relax. It is mental right now. But, hopefully, I am out of my shooting slump."

Starting forward Tori Sandstrom, who sprained her ankle in Saturday's game against Dundee-Crown will probably be out 2 to 3 weeks.

Halstead led McHenry with 8 points.

-- Dave Hess

Girls basketball

Aurora Christian 58, Westminster Christian 31: Westminster Christian (0-12, 0-6) fell to Aurora Christian in a Private School League game. Rachel Doby led the way for Westminster scoring a team-high 12 points. Beth Kautz had 8.

Huntley 51, Prairie Ridge 38: Daisy Jara had a game-high 22 points for Huntley as the Red Raiders (11-9, 1-2) won in the Fox Valley Fox Division. Shannon Hennelly had 11 points to lead PR (8-12, 2-1).

Jacobs 55, Woodstock 41: Markie Rahn had 18 points to lead Jacobs (10-9, 1-2) to this Fox Valley, Valley Division win over Woodstock (13-6, 1-2). Maria Tamburrino had 17 points while Sam Vojtsek had 10 for the Golden Eagles.

Burlington Central 49, Genoa-Kingston 37: The Rockets (13-6) passed Genoa-Kingston in nonconference play with help from leading scorer Jordan Maisto, who had a game-high 16 points. Melanie Laird added 14 to the Rocket victory.

Hampshire 37, Winnebago 20: With 9 points from Alex Dumoulin and 8 points from Kelsey Watson, Hampshire (12-7) racked up this 37-20 nonconference victory over Winnebago in a Big Northern crossover at Winnebago. The Whip-Purs have now won six of their last seven games.

Boys basketball

Oswego East 67, Streamwood 60: Kyle Holder led the Sabres (5-11) with 12 points in this nonconference loss. T.J. Enno and Tem Esikiel added 10 points each for the Sabres.

Women's basketball

Moraine Valley 71, Elgin CC 68: Despite an outstanding offensive effort from Ariana Topps who led all scorers with 26 points, Elgin Community College dropped this ISCC contest. Also scoring in the double-digits for the Spartans were Jessica Turnage (18 points) and De'Larissa Morris (11 points).