N. Stars win, Saints fall on final day of SCE tourney
St. Charles East and St. Charles North concluded the 49th annual St. Charles East Thanksgiving tournament with identical 1-3 records, but they got there in opposite fashion Saturday.
St. Charles North picked up its first victory of the year, breaking open a close game in the third quarter of its 60-49 win over Proviso West in the seventh-place game.
Jonathan DeMoss and Tim Janeway both scored 12 points for the North Stars, followed by Zach Hirsch and Danny Jimenez with 11.
"We needed it," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "The kids were getting a little discouraged, not that they should be down.
"We got exactly what we wanted out of this tournament. It was everything we thought it would be."
Nick Neari grabbed 11 rebounds for the North Stars and Mike Kastel, who made the start, had 9.
St. Charles East took the court next and lost its third straight close game, this time 55-52 to East Aurora in the fifth place game.
The Saints were hurt by 16 turnovers which led to 30 more shot attempts for East Aurora.
"We didn't close out the game," St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi said. "We played hard. Just a great game that came down to the end and we didn't finish it off."
Kevin Senechalle and Collin Pryor both scored 17 points for the Saints. Pryor was named to the all-tournament team.
The loss followed setbacks to Prospect and St. Joseph that the Saints led in the final two minutes of each, including a lead in the final seconds against the eventual champion Chargers.
"In our minds we are four or five possessions away from being 4-0. We're trying to take the high road on that," Clodi said. "We're going to look at the bright side. We were in every game. We have to obviously get better at closing out the game."
In the championship game, St. Joseph made it three titles in its four years of coming to St. Charles with a 58-54 victory over Wheaton North.
The Falcons couldn't overcome a cold shooting night in which they hit 18 of 58 shots from the field (31 percent) and just 5 of 23 of their 3-pointers.
"We competed tonight," Wheaton North coach Jim Nazos said. "We played hard. St. Joe is a great, great team. There are things we'll work on and get better at.
"Some of the shots could have been better looks and some were good looks and didn't drop. It was probably a mixture of both."
Wheaton North (3-1) led briefly in the first quarter but never again after Malcolm Smith's jumper put the Chargers (4-0) up 10-8 with 4:15 remaining.
The Falcons trailed 30-23 at halftime, then pulled within 37-35 in the third quarter on four straight points from John Bagge.
St. Joe scored the next nine points to build its largest lead at 46-35 early in the fourth quarter. The Falcons had another run in them, forcing 8 turnovers in the fourth quarter and drawing as close as 54-51.
Wheaton North had several chances to tie or pull closer but missed its first 8 three-point attempts in the fourth quarter.
The Falcons got back into the game with their full-court pressure that produced 23 St. Joe turnovers.
"We had a nice run in the second half and caused some things," Nazos said. "I like the way we fought back. It seemed like every time we made a mistake they were there to capitalize."
Tournament MVP David Dixon led St. Joe with 20 points followed by Diamond Taylor's 19.
Taylor also was on the all-tournament team with Bagge and Kristian Rosenberger from Wheaton North.
"We just had to pick up the intensity," Taylor said. "We came in thinking we were going to win just because of our name."
Taylor said the win was payback for a 1-point loss to Wheaton North this summer.
"They are a great team," Taylor said. "They had an off-shooting day a little so it was lucky for us."
Bagged scored 20 to lead the Falcons. Rosenberger added 11 points, Dave Pilalis 10 points and 5 steals, and Tim Bryant 6 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals off the bench.
"He (Bryant) was a nice spark for us," Nazos said. "He's going to do good things for us this year."