Dundee-Crown survives Elgin's upset bid
Justin Strzelczyk scored no points Tuesday night, but Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber feels he made the play of the game.
Strzelczyk drew an offensive foul on Elgin's Tom Roth with 9.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter of a tie game to help the Chargers get into overtime.
Once in overtime, D-C took control and survived the Maroons' upset bid with a 58-52 victory in the Class 4A Dundee-Crown regional semifinals.
"We watched a lot on film (Monday) and I noticed he lowered his shoulder a lot when he made his move. I just jumped in front of him and fell down," said Strzelczyk, a senior. "I got the call."
The top-seeded Chargers (20-5) advance to play either No. 2 Jacobs or No. 3 Huntley at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the regional championship.
Right now, D-C is just happy to be there. The fifth-seeded Maroons (11-17) came out quickly and grabbed a 16-10 lead after the first quarter. D-C rallied in the second behind 7 points from Jeff Beck to take a 27-26 lead into halftime.
The game remained close the rest of the way.
Elgin's Marcus Redburg's 3-point play with 3:06 left in regulation tied the game at 48-48. Roth gave the Maroons the lead with a pull-up jumper with 1:39 remaining. Beck tied the game again with 1:10 remaining.
The Maroons let the clock run down to 15.4 before calling a timeout. After the timeout, Roth held the ball near midcourt. He attempted to make a move to his right, but Strzelczyk was there and Roth was whistled for a push off with 9.1 seconds left.
Beck missed an off-balance shot in the paint and Marcus Henry's putback also was off the mark to send the game to overtime.
"What a great charge (Strzelcyzk) took so they couldn't get a shot," Huber said. "That was huge."
The Chargers hit 6 of 10 free throws in overtime and held Elgin to just 1 field goal to advance.
"Every game for here on out is going to be every team's best shot," Beck said. "It was definitely a tough game."
Beck led all scorers with 26 points. Charles Kimbrough added 12 points and 9 rebounds for the Chargers.
Roth and Redburg each had 15 points and 6 rebounds. Steve Edwards finished with 11 points, 9 in the first half, for Elgin.
"It was a game of runs, and they went on the best run in overtime," Maroons coach Mike Sitter said.
D-C ticket info: Dundee-Crown will sell 500 tickets for Friday's regional championship game on Thursday from 3 p.m. until 4 p.m., or until the 500 tickets are gone, in the field house lobby. Each individual may purchase a maximum of two tickets each at $4 each. The remaining tickets will be sold when the doors open Friday at 5:30 p.m. Game time is 7:30 p.m.