Bernhard’s career night lifts Dundee-Crown

Cary-Grove’s boys basketball team never knew what hit it.

The Trojans, who jumped off to a quick 5-0 lead, were outscored by Dundee-Crown 62-33 the rest of the game as the Chargers cruised to a 62-38 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win in Cary Friday night.

“We did a super job defensively,” said Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber. “We did a great job of pressuring them with our defense and we hit some shots.”

Operating a slowdown methodical offense, the Trojans (4-15, 1-4) got a 5-footer by Eric Graham in the lane and Ryan Arquette canned a long 3-pointer as Cary-Grove scored the first 5 points of the game.

The Chargers (12-6, 5-0), who didn’t score during the first 3 minutes, 30 seconds of the game, canned 7 of their last 9 shots of the quarter in outscoring the Trojans 16-2 to lead 16-7 after 8 minutes. During the run, Kyle Bernhard connected on 2 3-pointers and Brandon Rodriguez scored 5 points as D-C led by 9 after one quarter.

The Chargers continued their dominance in the second quarter with an 11-2 run to complete a 25-4 surge and take a 27-9 lead with 2:20 left before half. Bernhard continued his hot hand in the second quarter with 8 points including a 3-pointer. Bernhard, who made 5-of-7 from the field which included 3 3-pointers, scored 14 in the first half as the Chargers led 30-12 at halftime.

Dundee-Crown, which made 9-of-18 from 3-point range, held its biggest lead of the game at 34, 60-26, after 2 free throws by Bruce Dantzler with 2:06 left in the game.

Bernhard led the Chargers with a career-high 24 points.

“Kyle had a great game offensively, but this was his best overall game,” said Huber. He really played well at the defensive end and hit the glass at both ends.”

Bernhard, who was 9-of-15 from and 5-of-8 from 3-point range, also grabbed 8 rebounds.

“My shots were really falling tonight and the guys did a great job of getting me the ball in good position to score,” said Bernhard. “We played well as a team and really played well at the defensive end.”

Rodriguez added 16 for the winners.

Dean Lee led the Trojans with 8 points.

“When we were up early they got some loose balls and that got them going,” said Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schueltze. “They started building momentum and started draining some 3s. It is pick your poison when defending them.”