Prairie Ridge upsets Dundee-Crown
This is not likely a game the Dundee-Crown girls basketball team will include on its DVD of season highlights.
The Chargers had one of their more disappointing halves of the season Wednesday night, scoring just 12 points in the second 16 minutes. They also failed to execute defensively when they needed to, allowing Prairie Ridge to notch a 44-41 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division upset in Carpentersville.
“I thought there were some questionable calls but we made a plan at halftime of what we wanted to do defensively and we didn’t execute,” said D-C coach Michelle Russell. “We didn’t make the corrections we needed to make and we didn’t stop their 3-point shooting. They had more intensity than we did, a lot more.”
The loss sends the Chargers (14-8, 7-2) into second place in the Valley, a game behind defending division champ Cary-Grove. D-C, Cary-Grove and Huntley, which is now a game behind D-C after losing to Crystal Lake South Wednesday, each play each other again, including Cary-Grove and the Chargers meeting in the regular-season finale at D-C on Feb. 7. The loss also denied the Chargers their 15th win of the season, something the program hasn’t achieved since 2005-06.
“Now we’ll have to fight even harder these last three games to maintain the position we want,” Russell said. “We need to start applying the little things we do in practice every day.”
Dundee-Crown led by as many as 9 points in the second quarter before settling on a 29-24 lead at halftime. Prairie Ridge’s final 3 points of the first half, which ended up being the point differential in the game, came when Wolves’ senior Haleigh Danek made 3 free throws with no time on the clock after being fouled attempting a 3-pointer from beyond WNBA range.
And despite Prairie Ridge (11-11, 3-6) working itself into a 31-31 tie with three minutes left in the third quarter, the Chargers were able to get a 3-pointer from Carlin Faulkner and 2 free throws from Ali Sanders to take a 36-31 lead into the fourth quarter.
D-C led 39-33 with 5:44 to play after another Faulkner 3-pointer but that’s when the wheels fell off for the Chargers. They didn’t score again until Sanders made 1 of 2 free throws with 1:03 left, and by that time Prairie Ridge had taken a 42-39 lead on a 3-pointer from Danek with 1:39 to go.
Sanders again made 1 of 2 from the line with 41 seconds to go to make it a 42-41 game but PR’s Kelsey Bear buried 2 free throws with 30 seconds left and after an exchange of turnovers and a Prairie Ridge free throw miss, Faulkner’s 3-point attempt to tie with three seconds left rimmed out.
“We need to handle the ball better,” said Russell, whose team had 14 turnovers in the second half and made just 3 of 15 shots from the floor. “We missed a lot of easy shots and we need to apply the things we’re learning and talking about during the middle of the game. This is a tough loss for us.”
Faulkner led D-C with 15 points and Sanders had 12. Danek paced Prairie Ridge with 11 points, while Marisa Gerstbrein added 11 and Sarah LeBeau 8.
“The kids are playing through a lot of adversity right now but we’re moving forward as a unit,” said PR interim coach Jeff Boldog, who took over Jan. 19 when first-year head coach Julie Bemis resigned for personal reasons. “We’re stressing attitude and teamwork and that showed today. The girls came out in the second half and played some ferocious defense. They did a great job.”