St. Charles North notches win over Streamwood
During the course of a year, 40 days doesn't seem like a long time.
During the course of a high school basketball season, 40 days can be quite a bit of time - more than one-third of an entire season.
For St. Charles North's boys basketball team, 40 days can feel like an eternity.
After going 0-5 in December, the North Stars (3-7, 1-3) began the 2016 portion of their schedule on a positive note with a 65-51 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over Streamwood (3-12, 1-4) Friday night in St. Charles.
"They're hungry for some success in the new year," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin, whose team's last win came 40 days ago against East Aurora (68-58) at the St. Charles East/Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament. "Right now, we're 1-0 in our locker room in 2016.
"I feel like we took a nice step forward tonight in how we played. We still believe in that locker room."
That belief came in handy early in the third quarter after the Sabres had pulled within 31-30 on a 3-pointer from sophomore Brendon Marton (16 points, 7 rebounds, 4 steals).
Senior guard Armon Osborne provided the spark, scoring the North Stars' next 9 points - all on 3-pointers - as they extended their lead to 40-32.
"He took shots where he was toeing the line and they were after four or five passes," Poulin said of Osborne, who finished with 14 points. "They were good looks. I have not coached a better shooter when he's open and he's in rhythm.
"I thought that was a huge run. Those three 3s right there gave us a little separation."
Streamwood coach Paul Kowalyszyn agreed with his coaching counterpart.
"It doesn't help when one kid goes on pretty much a 9-0 run himself," said Kowalyszyn. "We responded OK but we didn't execute our offense the way we're supposed to. As soon as we started playing unorganized playground ball, it all fell apart."
Senior guard Jaleel Jenkins, who finished with a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds, canned a pair of 3-pointers as the Sabres trailed 46-41 after 3 quarters.
Another basket by Jenkins enabled the Sabres to pull within 4 at 49-45 with 6:40 remaining before the North Stars seized control thanks to a 15-3 surge that included 7 points from 6-foot-5 junior forward Griffin Hammer (15 points, 7 rebounds).
"Our team's New Year's resolution is to go 1-0 each week," said Hammer. "Now we're 1-0."
Jarod Karom (11 points), Kyle King (9 points, 5 rebounds), Mikey Schroeder (8 points, 4 assists), Anthony Delisi (3 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds) and Zach Ludwig (3 points) also contributed for the North Stars.
"We were 2-7 coming into the game but they approached it like we were 10-0 and Streamwood was 10-0," said Poulin. "I'm proud of our guys. They were focused."