A winning memory for Miller, Dundee-Crown at Mundelein
The gym at Mundelein High School is home to so many good memories for Sarah Miller.
On Monday night, the Dundee-Crown girls basketball coach made another.
Miller, a star player at Mundelein who led the Mustangs to three regional titles from 2002 to 2005, returned to her alma mater for the first time as a head coach during her third year in charge of the Chargers. This time, she got a win there as an opponent, guiding Dundee-Crown to a 44-25 nonconference win over Mundelein.
"I want to win anywhere, no matter where it is, but it's almost bittersweet (to get a win at Mundelein). There's so much history here for me," said Miller, a four-year varsity starter who was the program's only Division I player in the last 25 years. She played at Western Illinois. "I have huge respect for Mundelein, because it's my home. It's always nice to step back in this gym."
Miller says one of her favorite memories in her old gym was carrying Mundelein to a win over the area's perennial power at the time, Warren. Behind eventual Illinois Ms. Basketball and Stanford player Sarah Boothe, Warren ruled the North Suburban Conference. Its only blemish in Boothe's four years was to Miller's Mustangs. Warren was 55-1 over Boothe's four-year varsity career.
"The Boothe days … some of those games are the best memories for me," Miller said. "The team asked me before the game about what my best memories of playing in high school were and I talked about that game that we beat Warren. It was neck-and-neck. It was heart and hustle the whole game. I remember every possession was crucial.
"I try to teach my girls that. That you have to win one possession at a time."
The Chargers wound up winning possession after possession against Mundelein.
Dundee-Crown threw a full-court press at Mundelein from the tip and Mundelein was thrown for a loop. The Mustangs turned the ball over 15 times in the first half alone. And when they did hang onto the ball, they had a hard time getting a shot off against the Dundee-Crown pressure that continued into the halfcourt.
Mundelein made only 3 baskets in the first half and trailed 23-7 at halftime.
"We knew we really needed to pick up our defense," said Dundee-Crown junior forward Allison Michalski, who tied teammate Melissa Barker (three 3-pointers) for game-high scoring honors with 12 points apiece. "We wanted to get our stops and get (Mundelein) out of the game. We wanted to get turnovers."
Mundelein didn't cooperate as much as in the second half. The Mustangs turned the ball over only five times after halftime (for 20 total turnovers on the game). And the Mustangs shot much better, too. Rachel Tipperreiter led the way with 2 second-half 3-pointers. Her 6 points were a team-high, followed by 5 points from Carly Bonczkowski.
"To be honest, I thought most of our turnovers were unforced," Mundelein coach Martin Pazanin said. "It's kind of been a bugaboo for us. In terms of our experience, we're very inexperienced and you can kind of see it (with the turnovers).
"You take away 15 possessions in a half, obviously, that hurt us. But we were better in the second half. We did some nice things in the second half. We started attacking their pressure a little bit. But you're just not going to recover from 15 first-half turnovers."