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DeKALB – Half of DeKalb’s points on Saturday in a 56-39 win against Dundee-Crown came from turnovers.
The number was a lot closer to 100% during a pivotal run to start the second quarter.
The intense DeKalb defense forced 27 turnovers, leading to 28 points and overcoming 21 turnovers of its own in the win at their MLK Girls basketball Showcase.
“We all just came out with the defensive mindset mentality,” said senior guard Olivia Schermerhorn, who had 11 points, four assists and two steals in the win. “We just played hard and played together and it felt good to get those points off turnovers to know our defense was working and playing hard.”
The game was close in the first quarter. The Chargers (2-15) closing to 11-10 on a layup by Charlotte Stewart, who finished with a team-high eight despite fouling out in the third quarter.
But a layup by Brytasia Long and a 3-pointer by Johnna Patrick in the final minute pushed the lead to six.
DeKalb (17-5) scored the first 13 of the second quarter, all but two coming from Dundee-Crown turnovers. The game was never closer than 11 after that.
“It’s something we’ve worked on and emphasized a lot so it’s nice to see them applying that,” DeKalb coach Brad Bjelk said of the points off turnovers. “It’s really just their effort and they are committed to that effort.”
Bjelk said communication has been the key to the defensive success for the Barbs this year. He’d really like to see that sort of communication on the offensive end.
He said most of the 21 turnovers were just from sloppy communication. The Chargers had six steals in the game, compared to 12 for the Barbs.
“Several of them were just like throwing to somebody that wasn’t there,” Bjelk said. “We need to a little bit better job of communicating, just like we do on defense. We’ve communicated a lot to help with our defense. We need to bring that same communication to offense.”
Olivia Rodriguez had seven points and a team-high eight rebounds for the Chargers.
D-C coach John Gonnella said he liked the way the Chargers played aside from the turnovers, which have been the story all year. He said he is seeing improvement.
“There were times when we sort of let our defense lack a little bit then we try to catch up on offense,” Gonnella said. We’re trying to play at a different pace and we can’t control the ball."
Johnna Patrick had 12 points to lead the Barbs while Zara Watts had nine rebounds. Ella Medina had three steals.
DeKalb has already surpassed their win total from a year ago and is having one of their best seasons. The 17 victories are higher than all but one season listed in the IHSA online archives, although many years are missing.
The Barbs have had two straight losing seasons, including an 11-19 mark in 2022-2023.
“It’s amazing to see all our growth,” Schermerhorn said. “Being together and growing as teammates and friends and family in general, it’s been amazing to see how our program is growing.”
Schermerhorn said the team needs to keep playing with a chip on its shoulders for the hard work to keep paying off.
Bjelk said it’s been satisfying watch in the team achieve the success it has so far this year.
“Teams are trying to beat us. It’s kind of reversed from when we first started,” Bjelk said. “We were trying to beat teams that were where we wanted. We’ve had some success due to our hard work and commitment and now teams are looking to beat us.”