St. Charles North blows out Glenbard East

All season long, Glenbard East's girls basketball team has prided itself on playing strong defense.

On Wednesday night, the Rams (16-15) found out that St. Charles North isn't too shabby in that department, either.

The fifth-seeded North Stars (19-8) held the 12th-seeded Rams to single digits in the opening half while building a commanding 29-9 lead at the break.

Things didn't get much better for the Rams the rest of the way as they shot just 16 percent (8 of 49) from the field during the North Stars' convincing 53-20 Class 4A regional semifinal victory in St. Charles.

With the win, St. Charles North advances to Friday's regional championship against crosstown rival St. Charles East (20-7), which defeated Glenbard North 67-48 in the other semifinal contest.

The teams split their 2 previous meetings with each club defending its home court.

"It's just another game," North Stars coach Sean Masoncup said of the pivotal rubber match. "Obviously it's for a little more but we're going to prepare like we prepare for everybody."

The North Stars definitely looked well prepared against the Rams.

Sparked by 6-2 junior forward Claire Jakaitis, the North Stars exploded to a 19-5 first-quarter lead.

Jakaitis hit her first 5 field-goal attempts - most coming from point-blank range - on the way to a 10-point opening quarter.

"I thought Claire did a great job of getting seals and finishing at the rim and we did a better job of giving her a great entry pass," said Masoncup.

"They just kept feeding it to me," Jakaitis said of her teammates.

Jakaitis, who shot 10 of 16 from the field, displayed her range when she beat the third-quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer from the corner as the North Stars extended their margin to 37-13.

"I missed the first one (3-point attempt) and was a little disappointed," she said. "But I got the second one."

Jakaitis finished with 23 points - 3 more than the entire Rams' team.

"That's a first," said Jakaitis. "It was a whole team thing though."

The North Stars received additional contributions from Kyla Helsel (11 points, 4 steals, 4 rebounds), Nichole Davidson (7 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists), Morgan Rosencrants (4 points, 7 rebounds) and Ashling Davern (4 points, 5 assists).

"I thought we played one of our best games of the year and this is the best time to be doing that," said Masoncup, whose team has won 9 of its last 10.

It all starts on the defensive end for Masoncup.

"That's been the thing we've been talking about every day during practice," said the coach. "If we can get a stop at a time and limit them to one opportunity then we can be very successful."

Junior Brasia Solid led the Rams with 7 points.

"We just didn't have a good game and they played really well tonight," said Rams coach Don Finnie. "They came at us with a high-low game.

"I can't complain. These kids took me on a good ride this year."