Beginning was actually the end for Chargers
PEORIA - Dundee-Crown's title dream was gone before five nightmarish minutes had elapsed in Peoria on Friday.
Unable to keep pace with hyperactive Waukegan, the Chargers fell behind 15-0 just 4:22 into the first quarter and that pretty much did the trick, though the Bulldogs continued to pile up points as if more emphasis was needed.
None was.
Dundee-Crown (24-6), the unlikely Final Four qualifier of the 2009 Class 4A state tournament, finally ran out of surprises in a 67-46 loss to Waukegan in a state semifinal at Carver Arena.
Throughout their magical playoff run the Chargers regularly overcame disadvantages in height, speed and reputation. What they couldn't offset with skill, the rotation of eight seniors overcame with experience, good coaching and pure will.
However, Waukegan simply possessed too many weapons for D-C to overcome - experience, pure will and good coaching not withstanding.
Simply put, folks, the bigger, faster, stronger team usually wins, and that was the case on Friday.
"Waukegan is tough and they're even tougher when they shoot 9-of-16 (from 3-point range)," Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said. "They're really difficult to contain on the drive, and we could never really get out and pressure their shooters. It's almost impossible to guard them. That's one of the reasons they're one of the best teams in the state. We wish them the best of luck (today)."
The margin of a loss doesn't really matter once the L is the books. What matters most is that a Sunday trip home to Carpentersville with a championship trophy is no longer a legitimate possibility. Nevertheless, getting beaten so thoroughly on the state's biggest stage wounded the Chargers' pride a bit.
"I think it's harder when it's a blowout," said D-C senior leader Jeff Beck. "I don't think we played to our full potential. I would have rather we played better and lost a close game. Even if we'd played our best game and lost, that would have been fine. Close is better. I think we could have done better than how we did."
"In this situation we didn't play our game," center Charles Kimbrough said. "I would have felt better if it had been a close game."
The Chargers were never given a chance to play their game. Waukegan made 9 steals in the first half, when D-C committed 14 turnovers. That's more turnovers in one half than D-C committed in full playoff games victories over McHenry, St. Charles North and Neuqua Valley.
Dundee-Crown had to face reality once the deficit soared past 30 points early in the fourth quarter.
With a third-place game on tap today at 6:30 p.m. against Thornton (29-2), which fell 59-54 to Whitney Young in the second semifinal, Huber began substituting liberally in the fourth quarter. Six players who hadn't seen a minute of action since the playoffs began played most of the period and outscored the Waukegan reserves 22-12 to make the final score more respectable.
One of those reserves, junior Sean Bernhard, finished as the Chargers' leading scorer with 8 points on 3-of-3 shooting and 2 free throws.
"It wasn't what I expected when I got in there because I thought we'd be winning by 30 if I got in," Bernhard said. "In a way it became a matter of pride once they got up by 30. We wanted to show that our team could fit in here because it was the first time a team from our conference has been here.
"But it turned out we came out slow and they came out fast. That was the story of the game."
Though the title chase is over, the Chargers still have something important to shoot for in their season finale against Thornton at 6:30 p.m.: a third-place finish.
"We'll have a team meeting tonight to talk about what happened, just us guys, no coaches," Kimbrough said after the game. "We'll talk about having fun. We're out here to have fun. This is a fun game."
jfitzpatrick@dailyherald.com