St. Charles North downs ice cold Palatine

It was an epic offensive struggle for the Palatine girls basketball team Saturday evening in St. Charles.

The Pirates missed 38 of their 46 field-goal attempts in dropping a 40-27 nonconference game against St. Charles North.

"Defensively, it was just effort," said St. Charles junior post Anna Davern, who scored all 10 of her points in the opening half to tie teammate Lizzy Olsem for game-scoring honors. "All the girls were working hard to keep them out of the paint. Then our help was there."

The Pirates' 17-percent shooting performance featured not a single player scoring more than twice from the field.

Davern single-handedly outscored Palatine in the second-quarter with 4 inside buckets.

St. Charles North (5-4) turned an 11-9 deficit after the first quarter into a 23-16 lead at the intermission.

"It was all credit to the point guard, Launi Chanthaboury," Davern said of her efficiency in the low block during the second quarter. "We had a height advantage and really capitalized on that tonight."

Palatine reserve guard Tiana Henderson scored all 5 of her points in the second quarter to account for the Pirates' entire output in the quarter.

The Pirates (4-5) were 2-for-13 in the second quarter, missing their first 9 shots, after going 3 of 13 in the opening quarter.

"We had some good shots," Palatine coach Mark Johnson said. "We just didn't convert them. Hats off to the North Stars. They played really good defense."

Reggie Much paced Palatine with 6 points, but the senior guard never scored after the first quarter.

The Pirates were limited to 11 second-half points on 3-for-20 marksmanship from the floor.

"We need to work on our shooting," Much said. "We have been struggling lately. I guess we're not comfortable."

Davern also cooled off after halftime, but the junior found other ways to make contributions to the team.

On separate occasions in the third quarter, Davern fed Olsem for uncontested layups.

"We have been working on that since her freshman year," Olsem said of her collaborations with Davern. "We call it 'lasagna.' Me to her and her to me."

St. Charles North never relaxed its defensive intensity.

Palatine was on the cusp of being shut out from the field in the third quarter until Kendra Lindell drained a 3-pointer 21 seconds before the period ended.

The North Stars' Grace Quinn scored all 7 of her points after halftime to help give St. Charles North to its largest lead of the night at 35-17.

"We just have to keep after it," Johnson said.