Boys Basketball: LaLumiere too much for Dundee-Crown

Updated: December 20, 2011 7:46PM

The odds couldn’t have been stacked more against Dundee-Crown’s boys basketball team heading into Tuesday’s second-round matchup against La Lumiere at the Elgin Holiday Tournament.

The Chargers list only one player on their roster over 6-foot-7. Conversely, La Lumiere, a boarding school in LaPorte, Ind. whose lone loss this season is to national powerhouse Oak Hill Academy, features five Division I recruits and have four players 6-foot-9 or taller.

The Lakers flexed their muscle in a 64-42 win over D-C, setting the tone with a dominant first quarter and finishing it off with a 12-2 run to end the game.

“We can sit and cry about it, but we’re not going to get any taller,” Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said. “We came out, quite frankly, I thought we were a little intimidated. Maybe we should have went across there and asked them all for their autographs and ask them how it was going. That’s disappointing to me.”

La Lumiere (9-1) raced out to an 18-8 lead after a quarter and led by as many as 14 points in the second (29-15) before the Chargers (5-5) finished out the half with a flurry to cut the lead to 33-22.

“I think we came out a little timid in the first half,” said Dundee-Crown guard Dylan Kissack, who scored a team-high 11 points in the loss. “Then once we realized that we could stick with them, we played a lot better in the second half.”

But the Lakers were at it again to start the third quarter, opening the half on a 14-5 run to push the lead to 47-27. Along the way, the talent of their Division I prospects started to show. Indiana recruit and Colombia native Hanner Perea had a monster dunk as part of a three-point play.

The Chargers pulled to within 11 at the start of the fourth, 49-38, but the Lakers were just too much down the stretch. Perea and Purdue recruit Raphael Davis, who scored a game-high 21 points, put down exclamation point dunks down the stretch. Seven-foot New Mexico recruit Obij Aget also caused problems inside all day, while Purdue recruit Jay Simpson, Croatian national team member Matej Buovac and Southern Illinois recruit Antonio Drummond also contributed.

“I just want our guys to realize that no matter what they do, if you do the best that you can do, you’re not a failure,” Huber said. I think we have good character and that we’ll respond. Sometimes kids are better than you. That’s just the way it goes. We could have played our very best, and probably that team would have beaten us. But I’d like to find out how much they would have beaten us by if we would have given our very best for 32 minutes.”

Dundee-Crown will face Buffalo Grove in the third day of the Elgin tournament Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.

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