St. Charles North back to winning ways

Saturday morning high school basketball games can be challenging for a variety of reasons.

But they can also be rewarding because when you win, you have the rest of the day to yourself.

St. Charles North certainly was up to the challenge Saturday, jumping out to an early 20-5 lead and never looking back on the way to a 63-36 victory over Prairie Ridge (1-6) in the opening round of the Jacobs Holiday Classic in Algonquin.

Senior Josh Mikes, who led the way with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 3 steals, junior center Kyle Nelson and sophomore Quinten Payne combined for 18 of the North Stars' 20 first-quarter points.

“That was a key with a morning game and against a team like Prairie Ridge,” St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said of his team's fast start. “Their style is to possess the basketball and make 15 passes per possession.

“That's a difficult team to come back on so we wanted to have early energy, we wanted to get out and run a little bit, and we wanted to make sure our defense generated some offense. I thought we did those things early in the game.”

Offensively, the North Stars got their big guys involved from the opening tip, using a lot of over-the-top passes from Chris Conrad and Payne for easy baskets from Mikes and Nelson.

“If we play inside-out, it's going to make everything easier for everybody else,” said Poulin. “All of our perimeter guys will have an easier time if we pound them (down low) early in quarters.”

The North Stars (5-5), who extended their lead to 33-15 at halftime and 46-27 after 3 quarters, received an excellent all-around performance from Nelson. The 6-7 pivotman recorded 7 first-half blocked shots and finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 8 rejections.

“I was real proud of Kyle,” said Poulin. “He's consistently leading by example. He's a great teammate and the guys are seeing it.

“He was a couple blocks away from a triple-double but really it was him being engaged in every possession that makes us better defensively,” the coach added. “He's intelligently blocking shots – they're not wild blocks.”

Conrad had 11 points and 4 assists, while Payne added 9 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists as the North Stars improved their overall record to 22-9 at the Jacobs tournament.

“We're starting to play together now,” said Mikes, who watched Conrad and Payne combine for 11 of the North Stars' 13 second-period points from the bench after picking up his second foul late in the first quarter.

“We've played some good teams and we had some tough losses but I think that really helped us to become a team,” said Mikes.

Sean Valentine netted a game-high 20 points for the Wolves, who committed 20 turnovers and were outscored 22-9 at the free-throw line.

St. Charles North, which has recorded three consecutive second-place finishes at Jacobs, will face Barrington (6-4) Monday afternoon in a rematch of last year's tournament championship game (won 59-54 by the Broncos).

“We try to take it one game at a time but we definitely see that at the end of the tunnel,” Mikes said of a possible tourney title. “But we've got to take care of business just to get there.”