Dundee-Crown can't keep pace with Hononegah

For the better part of Tuesday's consolation bracket game against Hononegah, the Dundee-Crown girls basketball team was hanging close, and had visions of snapping its 6-game losing streak.

But then the Chargers' offensive struggles multiplied, Hononegah went on a run, and D-C was sent to its seventh loss in a row, falling to the Indians 53-33 at the 27th Annual Charger Classic in Carpentersville.

The Chargers (2-12) will take on Regina Dominican at 9:30 a.m. today in the final round of the tournament.

"The last time we played (Hononegah) we gave up eight 3s," said D-C coach Michelle Russell, referring to a 62-41 loss to the Indians in the D-C Thanksgiving tournament. "I thought we did an excellent job today of stopping their 3-point game. The girls are starting to see the big picture and they're picking it up."

While the Chargers held Hononegah (8-9) to just three 3-pointers in the game, D-C couldn't stop 6-foot-3 Hononegah sophomore Nicole Smith, who didn't play the first time the teams met. On Tuesday, Smith had a game-high 21 points to go along with 8 blocked shots and 7 rebounds.

"The pressure of guarding the big girl got to us," Russell said. "It's hard to guard (6-3) when your tallest player is 5-11."

Down 11-5 after one quarter, the Chargers got stung by an 8-0 Hononegah run they could never recover from. Smith started the spurt by making 1 of 2 free throws after being fouled grabbing an offensive rebound. Russell was assessed a technical foul when she argued the foul should have been on Smith, and Hononegah's Lindsay Carroll made both the technical shots to make it 14-5. Smith then scored on the ensuing possession and after one of D-C's 18 first-half turnovers, the Indians' Elizabeth Jordan canned a 3-pointer to give her team a 19-5 advantage. The closest D-C would get the rest of the way was 10.

But, the Chargers never let Hononegah run away with the game. Senior Megan Fasanella scored 8 of her team-high 14 points in the second half as D-C never gave up. Sophomore Ali Sanders added 9 points for the Chargers, who struggled to a 13 of 50 shooting game and turned the ball over 33 times.

"Fasanella came shooting today and Ali Sanders always looks to score," Russell said. "Our defense played well, we just couldn't stop the big girl inside.

"But I'm happy with the effort today. Our big downfall today was turnovers. We cut them down in the second half but we had way too many."