St. Charles East rallies from 16 down to beat Streamwood in OT

St. Charles East is finding life at the top of the Upstate Eight Conference River Division is a precarious place to be.

The Saints moved into a tie for first with Elgin Friday, but not until they had to rally from 16 points down at halftime and watch a couple Streamwood shots rim out in the closing seconds of their 57-55 overtime win.

Charlie Fisher nailed what proved to be the game-winner for St. Charles East (8-9, 5-1), a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:19 remaining in overtime for a 56-55 lead.

“Clutch 3, Charlie is our toughest kid,” said Saints coach Brian Clodi, whose team can get to .500 after an 0-5 start to the season with a win over rival St. Charles North at home Saturday night.

“Our players made plays and refused to get beat. Obviously everyone can say we were looking to North, I can promise we weren’t looking to North. This team is focused, they were looking to Streamwood. We know what kind of team Streamwood is. They have all the pieces.”

After Fisher’s 3-pointer, Streamwood (5-14, 1-6) missed a jumper and had to foul Saints sophomore Kendall Stephens with 35.1 seconds left. Stephens split free throws for a 2-point lead.

The Sabres went for the win and Brandon Larkin’s corner 3-pointer rimmed out with 7 seconds to go.

Fisher gave Streamwood new life when he missed a pair of free throws. D.J. Mustari was about to launch an off-balance 3-pointer when he spotted Bobby Post alone under the basket and lofted a pass to Post who couldn’t convert from point-blank range at the buzzer.

It was a tough ending for Post who has worked back from an ACL injury and led the Sabres Friday with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“D.J. saw Bobby there and lobbed it, it was a great pass,” Sabres coach Tim Jones said. “What are you going to do, he has to make that. I wish he would have banked it in. Bobby played a good game. He played well, all the kids did. We played up to our capabilities. We can see some light at the end of tunnel but you have to finish those games.”

The Sabres dominated the first half, leading 12-8 after one quarter and 32-16 at halftime after a closing 14-2 kick in the second quarter. The Saints hit just 5 of 25 shots in the first half with their star Stephens cold too at 1 of 10.

The second half was a different story. Stephens, in his first game after receiving and Illinois scholarship offer this week, scored 12 points in the third quarter to pull the Saints within 43-39 heading to the fourth.

“I said the first three minutes (of the second half) would be important and we let them back in the game,” Jones said. “We had a couple careless turnovers and it snowballed a little but we hung in there and had our chances at the end.”

Junior Julius Evans gave the Sabres a spark at the start of the fourth quarter with back-to-back baskets to restore a 47-39 lead. After Fisher’s 2 free throws, Stephens scored 7 straight points capped by a 3-pointer to give the Saints their first lead of the game, 48-47 with 3:45 remaining.

Mustari’s free throw tied the game at 48, and with 2:32 left Clodi called timeout and had the Saints hold for the last shot. The Sabres applied token pressure, and with 10 seconds to go Spencer Motley drove and dished to Johnny Hondlik who couldn’t get his lay-in to drop. Thomas rebounded for Streamwood and launched a 70-footer that hit off the backboard sending the game to overtime.

Both teams came alive in overtime. Thomas drove to put the Sabres up 50-48, Fisher answered with a floater in the lane. Mustari (16 points) canned his fifth 3-pointer making it 53-50 Sabres, Stephens drained a 3 to again tie the game and set the stage for Fisher’s game-winning 3 on the Saints’ next possession.

Only Batavia has had the Saints’ number in UEC play, with the Saints coming through in close wins over Elgin (2 points), Geneva (4 points), Larkin (5 points) and now Streamwood (2 points).

“If we would have lost this game it would have been tough going into the North game with confidence,” Stephens said. “Our mindset was we already beat them and we didn’t come out as hard as we should have. In the second half we definitely wanted it more than them.”

Stephens was again the only Saint in double figures with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Fisher and Motley both had 9 points. Motley added 6 assists.

Clodi praised the play of Luke Ludke off the bench with 3 points and 5 rebounds after Ludke’s grandfather passed away this week. The entire Saints team went to the wake Thursday night.

“I thought he gave an unbelievable effort,” Clodi said.