Dundee-Crown pulls off OT upset of St. Charles East
There wasn't any sense of panic.
Down to third-seeded St. Charles East 30-14 with 3 minutes left in the first half the chances for an upset for sixth-seeded Dundee-Crown seemed bleak.
The Chargers scored the final 11 points of the first half to cut the Saints' lead to 30-25 at halftime.
D-C was eventually able to pull out an exhilarating 57-54 win over the Saints in semifinal action of the Class 4A Dundee-Crown boys basketball regional Wednesday night in Carpentersville.
"We basically told the kids at one of the timeouts to play better or we go home," said Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber. "It was important to get the deficit down to 5 by halftime. We played better at the defensive end and anticipated better at the defensive end. We took care of business at crunchtime. It was a great win against a very good St. Charles East team."
D-C (17-11) will play District 300 rival Jacobs for the regional title Friday at 7 p.m.
Trailing by 16, the Chargers scored the final 11 points of the first half with Gabe Bergeron scoring 5 points including a 3-pointer. Josh Raby canned a trey to beat the buzzer to make the score 30-25 at intermission.
"It was important to us that we get their lead down by halftime," said D-C's Jack Orndahl. "We felt we were in good shape only down 5 at halftime. Collectively we amped up defensively and played much better at the defensive end after the first quarter."
The Chargers, who methodically whittled away at the Saints (18-10) lead, grabbed their first advantage of the game at 49-48 on a 10-footer in the lane by Brad Stec with 2:22 left in regulation.
With the score tied at 51, Justin Hardy's 15-footer for the Saints' win fell short.
In the extra session, Mark Musial buried a 3 deep in the left corner to give East a 54-51 lead with 3:08 remaining in the OT.
Those would be the last points the Saints would score in the game.
Two free throws each by Bergeron and Orndahl sealed the upset win for the Chargers.
Bergeron, 10-of-12 from the floor, paced the Chargers with 24 points. The senior center added 12 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
"They are a great team and this is a great win," said Bergeron. "We got stops when we had to. I felt really good shooting the ball. "
Orndahl added 10 for the winners.
"By far this is the best win of my 4-year varsity career," said Orndahl. "We kept our heads in the game and executed."
Nate Ortiz led the Saints with 17. Zach Robinson, before fouling out with 1:52 left in the game, scored 14 and Hardy scored 13.
"We got off to a great start but we couldn't sustain it for four quarters," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "Give D-C credit their defensive scheme really gave us troubles."