Dundee-Crown picks up intensity, downs Prairie Ridge
Dundee-Crown's players took to heart their coaches' urges at halftime to play harder.
"We thought (Prairie Ridge) was out-hustling us a little bit," Chargers coach Lance Huber said. "They beat us to the loose balls in the first half. I was really disappointed in our guys in the first half. We talked about how we wanted to defend some of the stuff they run and our guys did a little bit better and we played harder and picked it up a little bit."
D-C came out hitting shots on one end and stacking up stops on the other and basically put the game away in the third quarter on its way to a 58-36 victory over the Wolves in their Fox Valley Conference boys basketball game on Tuesday.
The Chargers (16-8, 10-5 FVC) outscored Prairie Ridge (13-13, 7-8), 19-6, in the third quarter. Although D-C's Kennon Cook had the only basket in the first four minutes, the Chargers scored 17 in the last half of that quarter.
"In the first half, (Huber) thought we weren't working as hard as we can," said Cook, who led all players with 19 points and 12 rebounds. "He kept pushing us so we can turn up the intensity. We stuck with it. We had a good practice yesterday. Usually when we have good practices, we have good games."
Forward Tyler Di Silvio came off the bench with three 3-pointers and his career-best 14 points. Di Silvio hit one 3 in the first quarter, then hit another with 2:50 in the third right as the Chargers were making their move.
"The jumper felt good from warmups and my team was feeding me when I was open, and I just shot it," Di Silvio said. "He was laying off (in the third) and I felt confident in my shot, so I just shot it."
Jason Huber hit his first 45 seconds later and the Chargers, who led 24-22 at halftime, finished the quarter with a 43-28 lead.
Prairie Ridge assistant coach Ryan Hartman was filling in for head coach Ryan Smith, whose wife Kylie gave birth to their first child, son Taylor, on Tuesday. Hartman's assessment was similar to that of Lance Huber.
"It was a little lack of us getting outworked on loose balls," Hartman said. "There were probably six loose balls where we didn't get on the floor and were scrambling and they hit some open 3s.
"It kind of came down to our lack of effort. The first quarter was great. They beat us to a lot of loose balls and got a lot of second-chance opportunities that helped us down the stretch, but it comes down to us not getting on the floor enough."
Jason Huber finished with 13 points for the Chargers. Prairie Ridge was led by James Muse with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Zach Lindquist added nine points.
"Tyler (Di Silvio) made some big shots Friday against Jacobs and made some big shots tonight," Lance Huber said. "He's a kid who just puts his head down and shows up every day and works. Credit to him for logging the time and get rewarded tonight. I've known Tyler since fourth grade and he just puts the time in on his own, so good for him."