St. Charles North wins 4th straight

Home continues to be sweet for St. Charles North.

The North Stars raced to a 12-2 lead in the first four minutes of their 59-36 win over Elgin on Saturday, improving to 4-0 this season at home with their fourth straight victory after an 0-8 start.

“Four-and-0 at home feels good,” St. Charles North freshman Morgan Rosencrants said. “We have a lot of work to do but we’re definitely improving.”

Rosencrants scored 14 of her game-high 17 points in the first half. St. Charles North (4-8, 2-3) built leads of 19-6 after the first quarter and 33-18 at halftime.

“First half we struggled with the press, we let them do what they wanted offensively,” Elgin coach Dr. Nick Bumbales said. “We’re a program that has struggled for a long period of time and our expectation in some of these games is not to win and that’s a problem.”

After Nicole Davidson assisted Ashling Davern for a basket to open the second half, Natalie Winkates buried a pair of jumpers. Any hope of an Elgin (3-8, 0-5) comeback disappeared as Alex Silverman found Rosencrants for a basket, then swished a 3-pointer to make it 44-23.

Silverman was second for the North Stars with 10 points, and Ava Tarka scored all 7 of her points in the second half.

“You see some sparks and segments of really good play. We definitely as a team are seeing that progress. We’re working on extending those good segments,” said North Stars coach Colleen Backer whose team will put their perfect home record on the line Tuesday against Backer’s alma mater Wheaton Warrenville South.

“We’re trying to build a program,” Backer said. “We’ve got a young team and we’re hoping to compete with them on our home floor.”

Eleven different players scored the Maroons including Aby Pierre-Louis with a team-high 7 points and Destiny West who nailed a 3 just before the final buzzer.

“I thought second half we played with a lot more energy,” Bumbales said. “I wasn’t that happy with our energy level first half. I thought second half we got a little more physical. We were more aggressive going to the basket.”