High school girls basketball: Burlington Central beats Dundee-Crown at buzzer

CARPENTERSVILLE – Burlington Central coach Collin Kalamatas felt it was as good a time as any to try something new. Tied with Dundee-Crown with 8.9 seconds remaining, the Rockets ran a play they never had used before.

Off a double screen, senior forward Kat Schmidt hit nothing but net on a 3-pointer from beyond 25 feet at the buzzer, and the Rockets celebrated a wild, 44-41 win over D-C to hand the Chargers their first Fox Valley Conference loss. Burlington (21-4, 10-2 FVC) moved within one game of first-place D-C (19-6, 11-1).

The 6-foot Schmidt said she had a buzzer-beater in AAU but never before at the high school level. She thought her shot Wednesday was going to fall short and was relieved when it went in.

Schmidt, who became the second-leading scorer in program history last week, tossed her arms in the air and was mobbed by a handful of happy teammates on the court.

"We've been preparing for this game for quite a while," said Schmidt, who had a game-high 19 points and 12 rebounds, adding three 3s. "[D-C's] physicality ... and [Alyssa] Crenshaw, she's a great player. This win is huge for us, and we're just so excited. Hopefully, this momentum carries us."

D-C senior Cassidy Randl tied the game at 41 on a 3 with 1:40 remaining. Neither team scored again until Schmidt's dagger.

"That was devastating," Randl said. "We came back, and we wanted to finish it off. We just have to take it and learn from it. That first half, we have to start out stronger."

Kalamatas simply called the play "Winner."

"Give the credit to the girls; we've never run that one before," Kalamatas said. "We had the first ball screener to kind of get space for Elana, the second ball screener was to get the helper on Elana. It was just one of those 'You know what? Let's see if we can make some magic here.' Sure enough, they executed."

D-C beat Burlington in its first conference game this season but lost to the Rockets in DeKalb's Martin Luther King Jr. Tournament nine days ago.

Maddie Menke added 10 points for the Rockets on Wednesday, all in the first half. Elana Wells had seven, but found difficulty penetrating D-C's interior defense. Wells was the first scoring option on the game-winner.

"Coach said to come off the double screen and try to penetrate to the basket," Wells said. "But that was taken away, and that was taken away the whole game. I got to the basket a couple of times, I wasn't able to finish. Off that double screen I heard Kat calling for it, and I trust her, so I gave her the ball, and she hit the shot."

D-C did not have any players reach double figures in scoring. Randl, Crenshaw and Makayla Gotter all had eight points. Crenshaw, the team's leading scorer at 14.4 points a game, had eight rebounds but picked up her fourth foul with 4:52 left in the third quarter.

D-C trimmed a 28-19 deficit at half to 33-31 after three.

A bucket by Gotter gave D-C its first lead, 34-33, since the first quarter with seven minutes to go before Burlington went on an 8-0 run. D-C scored the next seven points, capped by Randl's 3.

"My team plays with a lot of heart," D-C coach Sarah Miller said. "That was a [heck] of a shot, but the game wasn't won on that shot. There was a lot of things we could have done differently in the first half to make it easier. The ability to battle back shows the heart that we have. We knew it was going to be a tough game."

STAR OF THE GAME

Cassidy Randl

Dundee-Crown, sr., G

Randl made two 3s in the second half for the Chargers and scored a team-high eight points. Her second 3 tied the game at 41 with 1:40 remaining.

THE NUMBER

1: Burlington handed D-C its first Fox Valley Conference loss of the season.

AND ANOTHER THING …

No D-C players reached double figures in scoring. Randl, Alyssa Crenshaw and Makayla Gotter scored eight points apiece.

Burlington Central 44, Dundee-Crown 41

BURLINGTON CENTRAL (44)

Schmidt 7 2-2 19, Menke 4 2-2 10, Wells 2 3-4 7, Moretti 1 0-0 3, Kollhoff1 0-0 3, Gardner 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 7-8 44.

DUNDEE-CROWN (41)

Gotter 4 0-1 8, Crenshaw 3 2-2 8, Randl 3 0-0 8, Harris 2 2-3 6, Skibinski 2 4-6 7, Schmidt 1 2-2 4. Totals: 15 9-14 41.

Burlington Central 11 17 5 11 – 44

Dundee-Crown 8 11 12 10 – 41

3-point goals: Burlington Central 5 (Schmidt 3, Moretti, Kollhoff), Dundee-Crown 2 (Randl 2). Total fouls: Burlington Central 14, Dundee-Crown 15.