Dundee-Crown charges past Sycamore

Huntley boys basketball coach Marty Manning commented to Dundee-Crown head coach Lance Huber that it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if the two teams didn't play.

The tradition remains as Dundee-Crown downed host Sycamore 62-50 to earn a berth in Sycamore's Leland G. Strombom boys basketball tournament championship game tonight.

Huntley (3-0) and the Chargers (3-0) have faced one another 4 out of the last 5 years in the annual tournament, with 3 of the last 4 coming in the title game.

Dundee-Crown (3-0) is the defending champion and also won in 2008 and 2005. Huntley took the title in 2009 and 2006.

Huber will look for the same sort of defensive effort that he saw from his team during the final period Friday night.

"We made a little extra effort on defense in the fourth quarter," Huber said.

The Chargers needed to. After leading for the entire game, Sycamore came back and scored 20 third-quarter points to tie the game 3 times.

After Sycamore's Tom Paulson tied the game at 45 to open the fourth period, D-C went into shutdown mode.

Sycamore would not hit another field goal until Paulson connected with 11 seconds left in the game. Dundee-Crown outscored the Spartans (0-3) 17-7 in the quarter, including going on a 13-0 run to go up 58-45.

This came after Sycamore put up its 20 points on a 7 for 10 shooting effort and knocked down four 3-pointers in the third quarter. The Spartans managed just 23 points in the first half.

"We weren't guarding them hard enough on defense and they were knocking down a bunch of 3s," said Chargers' guard Brandon Rodriguez, who finished with 13 points, 3 steals, 3 assists and a block. "We kept our composure. We were able to stick it out and win."

Bruce Dantzler gave the Chargers a huge boost off the bench, especially during the fourth quarter. Dantzler scored 6 of his 11 points in the final period and went 4 for 6 from the free-throw line.

"He came in and gave us a big lift," Huber said. "He has a knack for getting to the hole and getting big rebounds."

D-C jumped out to an 18-8 first-quarter lead with Kyle Bernhard nailing three 3-pointers. With the Spartans then focusing their defensive attention toward Bernhard, Dylan Kissack put up 13 points in the final 3 periods. The Chargers were 11 for 19 from the floor in the second half.