St. Charles North finds East Aurora a tough team to slow down

The good news for St. Charles North is that East Aurora star Ryan Boatright only had an average game Friday night.

The bad news for the North Stars is that an average game for Boatright is 28 points.

The Tomcats' junior guard hit his average on the nose, scoring 28 points and leading East Aurora back from a 4-point halftime deficit for a 66-55 win in St. Charles.

Boatright scored in every way possible, on drives, pull-up jumpers, free throws, dunks and a 3-pointer that beat the second-quarter buzzer with three North Stars draped all over him.

"I don't think he got any easy buckets other than a breakout dunk," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "He earned his points. I don't think it was an easy night for him to get what he got. He's just that good."

The North Stars (9-8, 2-3) tried a variety of defenses, from man to box-and-one to a 1-2-2 half-court trap. Nothing was particularly effective, but as good as Boatright played it wasn't until teammate Snoop Viser got going that the Tomcats (10-4, 3-0) took control.

Visor, who missed the last six games, scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half. His back-to-back 3-pointers with three minutes left in the third quarter erased a 38-33 St. Charles North lead and put the Tomcats ahead to stay, 39-38.

Visor followed with a breakaway slam. Those eight points started East Aurora on a 20-4 surge that put them ahead 53-42 with 6:16 remaining.

The North Stars got as close as 52-45 on Ryan Brown's basket but never could find the form they flashed in the first half when they rallied from an early 12-1 deficit to lead by as much as 27-19 in the second quarter.

"To come back like that is impressive and overall I'm proud of the guys," Poulin said. "It was a tale of two halves. In the fist half we were the hardest working team in the gym. In the second half we kind of took some steps backwards and weren't focused in what we talked about at halftime."

St. Charles North played without starting center Kyle Nelson who suffered a high ankle sprain Wednesday and will be out one or two weeks.

Leading scorer Josh Mikes also started the game on the bench, and the North Stars' new lineup struggled in the first five minutes.

Brown responded starting in Nelson's place with 9 points and 9 rebounds. Mikes led the North Stars with 16 points, followed by David Johnson with 13 and Chris Conrad's 11.

Trammell Weathersby added 13 points for East Aurora, who shot 1 of 8 on 3-pointers in the first half but 4 of 5 in the second. The Tomcats head to Northern Illinois tonight for their 213th meeting against West Aurora.

"This is what they call the trap game so we escaped the trap game so I'm happy," Tomcats coach Wendell Jeffries said. "We've been talking about West Aurora in practice all week."

The North Stars took good care of the basketball through three quarters with 8 turnovers before the Tomcats forced seven in the fourth. East Aurora outscored St. Charles North 38-23 in the second half.

"We didn't come out with the same energy obviously as we did first half," Johnson said. "Against that team you need to play as hard as you can every possession. I think we were a little gassed but no excuses."

Free-throw shooting also hurt the North Stars, who made just 11 of 23 to the Tomcats' 15 of 20. Again Boatright led the way sinking 8 of 9, coming off a rare poor night (7 of 15) in his last game.

St. Charles North will try to bounce back tonight at future Upstate Eight foe Geneva, who also is coming off a loss Friday at Rochelle.

The Vikings (12-5) present their own set of challenges for the North Stars, though a future Division I guard like Boatright isn't one of them.

"He's so fast it's crazy," Johnson said. "Even when we double team him he goes right by you. You just hope he doesn't make his shots pretty much, try to give him 3s. He's unbelievable."