Girls basketball: Sycamore snaps Dixon’s 9-game undefeated streak

DIXON – Against an undefeated Dixon team, Sycamore knew it couldn’t afford a slow start.

With a strong opening quarter Monday night at Lancaster Gym, the Spartans did exactly what they needed to.

Keeping up its defense for the rest of the game and surging on a sizable run in the third quarter, Sycamore won 40-31 against the Duchesses.

[ Photos: Dixon vs Sycamore girls basketball ]

The Spartans, who improved to 6-1 with the win, never trailed.

Sophomore guard Grace Amptmann buried a right-wing 3-pointer 19 seconds into the game, and the Spartans held that lead for 32 minutes.

Sycamore made five 3s and assisted on 8 of 9 field goals in the first half as it took control of the game.

“I think we have very unselfish players and players that step up in big situations, and I think that just helped us keep the lead that we had, because it never went away,” Sycamore senior guard Monroe McGhee said. “I think we can attribute all of that [success] to our unselfishness.”

The Spartans took a 14-6 lead with 2:49 left in the first quarter on a right-corner 3 by senior guard Sophia Klacik, then answered a deep 2 and two free throws by Dixon sophomore guard Morgan Hargrave with a layup by senior guard Lexi Carlsen in the final minute for a 16-10 lead.

Sycamore widened its lead to 23-14 midway through the second quarter on a nifty McGhee spin layup between two defenders.

Dixon (9-1) answered the Spartans’ surge with a 5-0 run over the final 4:04 of the half. Sophomore guard Reese Dambman nailed a deep left-wing 3 to make it a six-point game with just over four minutes left. With 7.1 seconds remaining, she hit a short pull-up jumper to cut it to 23-19 just before halftime.

“We knew we needed to close out as much as possible. We needed to attack the ball and stay solid on defense,” Dixon senior forward Jessie Pitman said. “It didn’t work out in our favor all of the time, but we held them for a little bit. I’m proud of our team.”

The Spartans followed a second-quarter shooting slump with a 15-8 third-quarter run.

Senior center Kate Elsner started it off with a three-point play on a putback with 7:39 to go. McGhee converted a three-point play after a layup for a 10-point lead with 3:25 remaining, and a right-corner 3 by freshman guard Quinn Carrier stretched the margin to 36-23 with about two minutes left.

Sycamore led 38-27 after three quarters.

“We picked each other up,” Carlsen said about the third quarter. “I think we all knew that maybe the ball wasn’t going in the basket nearly as much as we wanted it to, but we stuck together and we picked it up on the defensive end, and we got the win.”

Dambman cut the deficit to 38-31 with two free throws followed by a layup with 5:45 to play in the game, but those were the last points the Duchesses would score.

McGhee knocked down two final free throws with 45.8 seconds left to seal the win.

“We started to give up on our fundamentals. That game was all about fundamentals that we just weren’t getting to exactly,” Pitman said about Dixon’s second-half struggles. “We just weren’t closing out as much, and we were letting things slip, and we just couldn’t keep them to it.”

McGhee compiled 17 points, seven rebounds and two assists; Carlsen had seven points, 10 rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block; and Amptmann added three points and four assists for the Spartans.

Dambman finished with 10 points and five rebounds; senior guard Katie Drew contributed six points and six rebounds; Pitman totaled four points, six rebounds and two blocks; Hargrave tallied four points, four rebounds and two steals; and freshman forward Ahmyrie McGowan added six rebounds and two steals for the Duchesses.