Chargers capitalize on many contributions
Dundee-Crown prides itself on having an octopus' worth of arms with which to slug its opponents.
McHenry was slugged by every tentacle of the Chargers' offense in Wednesday's 48-37 victory over the Warriors in the Class 4A Elgin sectional semifinal.
The victory was D-C's third of the season against its fellow Fox Valley Conference Valley Division opponent - and also the most important.
Dundee-Crown (22-5) earned a berth in a sectional title game for the first time since 2004. The Chargers will face St. Charles North (22-8) at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both schools will be seeking their first sectional title.
The Chargers will need some diverse contributions like they got against McHenry (16-13).
"No one guy does it all," said Chargers senior Jeff Stupar, who came off the bench to nail a 3-pointer as time expired in the first quarter. "We play as a team. We win as a team."
Stupar's buzzer-beater sparked several teammates, who all took turns jabbing the Warriors with crowd-awing blows as the Chargers went on a 9-0 to open the second quarter. Stupar (11 points) scored 5 points as the Chargers outscored McHenry 17-11 in the second quarter to go up 32-20 at halftime.
The biggest slam, literally, came as D-C center Charles Kimbrough posterized a pair of McHenry players who attempted to stop him during his second dunk of the run. The Chargers used Kimbrough's dunks to neutralize the energy the Warriors and their jam-packed student section brought.
"We knew they were going to come out and play hard," said Kimbrough, who finished with 8 points and 7 rebounds. "We wanted to match their intensity. We had to play hard and we did."
Add in a steal and coast-to-coast drive from Aaron Reams (5 points, 2 steals) and the Chargers never looked back. The closest McHenry came was when it cut the D-C's lead to 44-37 off a Chris Madson offensive putback. Madson, McHenry's leading scorer, finished with 12 of his game-high 18 points in the second half, when McHenry never came closer than 7.
"Our guys came out and really took it at them," Chargers coach Lance Huber said. "We had a lot of balance."
Marcus Henry delivered blow after blow on the offensive glass, finishing with 8 of his 11 boards on the offensive side to go along with his team-high 16 points. Dundee-Crown owned a 35-26 advantage on the glass.
"They changed their matchup on him, and they didn't have a guy that could keep Marcus off the glass," Huber said.
Henry did the job early and late for the Chargers. The senior scored the first 6 D-C points, including 2 baskets assisted by Jeff Beck (7 points, 6 assists, 2 steals). Henry then went 4 of 5 from the free-throw line in the final period to help seal the victory. Overall, Henry shot 6 of 9 from the floor.
"In the beginning of the year, I was one of the top offensive rebounders," Henry said. "Then it slowed down a little bit in the middle of the year. (Tonight) we needed to match their intensity."
Tickets on sale today: Dundee-Crown will sell an allotment of 1,000 tickets for Friday's Elgin sectional title game beginning today at 3 p.m. at the concession stand outside the school's field house.