Dundee-Crown tops Hoffman Estates
The Dundee-Crown boys basketball team may have played the best quarter of its entire season Monday.
The Chargers (5-4) defeated Hoffman Estates 59-47 in the opening round of the 37th annual Elgin Holiday Tournament, and advanced to play La Laumiere (Ind.) in an 11:15 a.m. quarterfinal on Tuesday.
The Chargers came into the second half trailing by 5 points, but they would break the game open in the first three minutes. Junior Dylan Kissack made two consecutive baskets to put the Chargers ahead, and senior Will Stupar made consecutive layups to add to the lead.
The Chargers ended up scoring 15 unanswered points to open the half, 7 of which came from Kissack, and outscored the Hawks 24-4 to end the third quarter with a comfortable 15-point lead.
“That was probably one of our best quarters that we’ve ever had,” said Kissack. “We had great possessions on offense, but it really started with the stops on defense. That really helped us out.”
Kissack finished the game with a team-high 21 points, while junior Brandon Rodriguez notched 10 points for the Chargers. The Hawks were led by senior Austin Terry with 12 points, while senior Brian Cvitkovich and junior Joseph Biko each put up 8 points for Hoffman Estates.
Hawks head coach Luke Yanule knew his Hawks (3-6) could have handled the third-quarter pressure a lot better than they did.
“We’re fighting a mentality that we want to feel sorry for ourselves,” said Yanule. “I thought our energy was down in the third quarter, our execution suffered, and our intensity was way down. We got completely scared and nervous. We felt like we were defeated and that’s inexcusable and unacceptable, and it will never happen again. They have my word on that. Hoffman has my word on that.”
After a tough stretch of games after Thanksgiving in which the Chargers dropped four in a row, Kissack was refreshed to get to such a good start in the always-challenging holiday tournament.
“It’s a good feeling,” he said. “We lost four in a row (three weeks ago), so it was kind of tough. It was nice getting a win today and it will be good getting a few wins going into 2012 too.”