St. Charles North holds off St. Charles East
The last thing on St. Charles North coach Colleen Brennan’s mind during her team’s game at rival St. Charles East was style points.
Shooting 28 percent from the field, turning the ball over 8 times in the fourth quarter, none of that mattered. What did? Seeing 37-35 on the scoreboard.
“The big thing was we talked about heart and doing anything to come out with a win,” said Brennan, who was pleased with how her team handled the 3 C’s — composure, control and confidence.
“Our composure at the end was pretty strong. We just fought through. Obviously I’m happy with the outcome regardless of how it was obtained.”
St. Charles North (10-10, 5-2) never trailed in the game. The North Stars led 12-5 after one quarter and 16-10 at halftime in a low-scoring game reminiscent of the 2010 battle at St. Charles East that was 7-6 at halftime.
The Saints (6-14, 2-6) scored the first four points of the second half and kept the pressure on North the rest of the way even though they never took the lead. Taylor Russell helped the North Stars maintain a 27-20 lead after three quarters with a pair of baseline jumpers, including one that spun around the rim for seemingly five seconds before dropping in.
“We were getting some good shots opportunities and communicating with each other on the court,” Brennan said. “We passed the ball around the perimeter and created some things.”
St. Charles East pulled within 31-29 with 3:32 left in the game on a 3-point play by Morgan Vyzral. Russell’s off-balance transition basket that she made while getting hit and falling down gave the North Stars a 35-30 lead in the final two minutes.
Vyzral again came up with a 3-point play making it a 35-33 game, and the Saints’ press forced a turnover. Paige Jordan deflected a pass, Amanda Hilton retrieved it and fed the ball back to Jordan for a layup and the first tie since 3-3 at 35-35 with 1:14 left.
The North Stars worked the ball to Megan Booe who drove and drew a foul. She calmly made both free throws with 46.2 seconds left that proved to be the game-winning shots. She also finished a 4-for-4 night at the line.
“We practice free throws every single practice,” Booe said. “We do a drill of 3 minutes of constant free throws, if you miss you run and it kind of instills it in your mind you have to be confident in yourself. My dad told me when you go up there you have to be confident in yourself. I wanted to do it for the team and it really helped.”
The Saints missed twice trying to tie the game but the North Stars were called for traveling giving St. Charles East a final possession with 20 seconds left.
Hilton drove but had her shot blocked by Tess Fischer. The ball rolled out past the 3-point line where Jordan picked it up with 8 seconds left. She found an opening in the lane but her runner hit off the rim, and North’s Sydney Russell rebounded and dribbled out the final 2 seconds.
“I thought we had two decent looks at the basket,” Saints coach Lori Drumtra said. “It was a tough loss but it’s not going to keep me up at night because of the way they played.”
While St. Charles North senior point guard Sydney Russell didn’t score in the game, she did her job defensively by holding the Saints leading scorer Jordan to 8 points. Fischer (12 points) and Taylor Russell (10 points) picked up the offensive slack.
Fischer, Taylor Russell and Booe all grabbed 8 rebounds leading North to a 43-34 advantage. It was the second straight strong game off the bench for Booe who 4 points and 4 assists Friday against Lyons.
“Coach Brennan told us in order to get in the game we had to be confident in ourselves,” Booe said. “Leah Horton (4 points, 3 steals Saturday; 11 points Friday) and I, we pulled through together (Friday). It transferred over to this game. We knew anyone coming off the bench was going to be able to play.”
Vyzral’s 14 points were a career high and she also led the Saints with 7 rebounds. A 4-of-23 shooting struggle in the first half led to just 26 percent (13 of 50) for the game.
“I thought we missed some easy baskets in the first half which is the story of our season,” Drumtra said. “Morgan played a great game, they found her and she finished. They had their heads down a little but we’ll build on that. If you have seen us play at all you have to see the improvement.”