Dawrant's career high lifts St. Charles North

Opportunity knocked on Thursday night and St. Charles North senior guard Brad Dawrant was ready to answer.

Dawrant came off the bench to score a career-high 15 points, including 11 in the first half, as the North Stars (17-8, 10-3) rolled to a 44-25 halftime advantage over visiting West Chicago.

After the Wildcats (6-16, 3-10) pulled to within 48-37 late in the third quarter on an offensive rebound putback by Devonte Pascal (7 points), North Stars guard Jake Ludwig took over from there.

Ludwig, 1 of 6 players honored on Senior Night, tallied 11 of his team's next 12 points as the North Stars extended their lead to 61-38 on the way to a 77-56 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory in St. Charles.

"I knew they were going to go on a run at some point," said Ludwig, who finished with a game-high 26 points on 9 of 12 shooting from the field. "I felt like I needed to contribute a little bit more on the offensive end."

Ludwig's late scoring spree included a 3-pointer, a 3-point play and a short jumper in the lane.

Early on, the North Stars received some offensive firepower from seniors Johnny Davern (12 points), Jack Callaghan (8 points, 4 assists), David Pozna (6 points, 6 rebounds) and Ludwig as they shot out to a 17-5 lead during the first 3 minutes.

Dawrant capped the quarter off by draining the first of his four 3-pointers from the top of the key with 1 second remaining to give the North Stars a comfortable 28-11 lead.

He added two more 3-pointers during a 14-2 surge that enabled the North Stars to build their largest lead of the night at 39-13 with 5:29 left in the second quarter.

"That was my point - to come out and just try and make the most of my opportunities given," said Dawrant. "When I'm out on the floor with Jake (Ludwig) and Jack (Callaghan), they know how to get me open."

"I thought some kids stepped up," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin, whose team has won 9 of its last 11 games. "Brad Dawrant had a great game. He's a very good athlete who can shoot it when he's open and he works really hard.

"He has taken on a role that has helped get us to 17-8 with one of the toughest schedules around. We're proud of Brad and what he has done for the program. He's a great teammate. I'm really happy he was able to have a night like this."

The North Stars' other senior, Brendan McCarthy, chipped in with 5 rebounds and 2 points.

"I thought we did a nice job and we had kids who haven't played together a lot or haven't played a lot," said Poulin. "We've got a pretty nice senior class and a pretty special group of kids that know how to play basketball together.

"My personal goal was for each of the seniors to enjoy their night and have fun. After all, that's why we do this."

Peter Dolan paced the Wildcats with 10 points and 6 rebounds while sophomore Tai Bibbs added 8 points and 4 assists.

"We've got to get out to faster starts," said Wildcats coach Bill Recchia. "We didn't run our offense the way we need to run our offense. We were settling for shots. We took three shots in the lane in the first half. That's not what our offense should generate.

"I'm proud of the way we battled back though."