Boys Basketball: Kyle Bernhard leads Dundee-Crown rout of Cary-Grove

Updated: January 27, 2012 11:39PM

With a first-place showdown in the Fox Valley Fox against Huntley looming Saturday, the last thing Dundee-Crown could afford to do Friday was take struggling Cary-Grove lightly.

But with a history of getting beat at Cary-Grove, the Chargers were in no mood for a trap game and quickly obliterated the Trojans 62-38 behind a career-high 24 points by senior guard Kyle Bernhard.

“Everybody is looking toward tomorrow, but we had to make it through tonight, first,” said Bernhard, who drilled 5-of-9 from beyond the three-point line.

Bernhard exploded for 14 first-half points, including three three-pointers, and the Chargers went on to a 30-12 halftime lead before cruising to their sixth straight win.

“Everyone is going to talk about his shooting, but I thought today was his best defensive game, and he really went to the glass hard,” Chargers coach Lance Huber said of Bernhard, who had five rebounds and a steal to go with two assists. “He did a lot of things to get himself into the flow of the game instead of just trying to get into the flow by shooting.

“He got himself into the game by guarding and rebounding and the shots just came.”

Brandon Rodriguez hit for 16 points and collected eight rebounds and D-C as a team made 9-of-18 from beyond the three-point line. The Chargers (12-6, 5-0) hit 10-of-15 from the floor in the third quarter and actually led 62-29 at one point in the fourth quarter before Trojans reserves made four fourth-quarter three-pointers to make the game “closer.”

Ironically, Cary-Grove (4-15, 14) started like it would pull off the upset, leading 5-0 before getting outscored 54-19 from that point until the end of the third quarter.

“We had a tough loss here last year,” Bernhard recalled. “When we came out tonight, we expected them to play zone and they came out in man, and they threw us off and we had to regain our composure and make some shots.”

Cary-Grove was held to 33 percent shooting (14-of-42) and had eight points from Ryan Arquette and Dean Lee, but 6-foot-4 pivot man Ben Bradshaw was held to two points and two boards by 6-foot D-C post Thomas McNally.

“He battles,” Huber said. “He gives you all he has. If you can leave the game knowing a guy gives you all he has, that’s all you can ask as a coach.”

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