St. Charles North 61, East Aurora 47

St. Charles North opened its season with a loss to East Aurora, and the North Stars have been battling to get over the .500 mark ever since.

The North Stars got there Friday, and they did it against those same Tomcats.

St. Charles East players Collin Pryor, Zach Scott and most of its regulars were on hand getting a glimpse of the red-hot North Stars, who made it seven wins in their last eight games by handling East Aurora in convincing fashion, 61-47.

Those Saints will get their chance to cool off the North Stars next weekend on what should be an exciting night of basketball in St. Charles. That will come after Geneva gets its shot at the streaking North Stars (9-8, 3-2) tonight.

But it won't be easy for either, as East Aurora (10-6, 1-2) found out Friday in a game St. Charles North never trailed.

Since starting the year 2-7, the North Stars have righted the ship thanks to a pair of double overtime wins and a strong run to second place at Jacobs' Christmas tournament.

"We came together over the Christmas tournament," said junior guard Jonathan DeMoss, who led all scorers with 19 points.

"We just started playing together. We're clicking now. It's a great feeling."

St. Charles North scored the first 6 points and never looked back. DeMoss and Tim Janeway (13 points, 3 steals) combined for the first 14 points for the North Stars until Nick Neari's basket with 5 minutes left in the second quarter.

Neari finished with 8 points as part of a near triple double -- 10 rebounds and 8 assists.

"That's what we expect out of him," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "We think he can be a force as a playmaker because of his length and his size. He can handle the ball against smaller defenders as he did tonight.

"Real proud of Nick. I thought Nick and Jon tonight took a step in the right direction as far as being leaders to lead when it's crunch time, when its a big conference game. They did that tonight, both of them."

St. Charles North led 22-17 at halftime, then extended its lead to double figures in the third quarter behind three 3-pointers from Zach Hirsch, who finished with 14 points.

East Aurora trailed 41-30 after three quarters, and never got within 10 points in the fourth. Ryan Hayden led the shorthanded Tomcats with 15 points including four 3-pointers.

East Aurora fielded a different lineup than in its season-opening 73-63 victory against St. Charles North, playing without starters Tramell Weathersby (missed bus) and William Brown (disciplinary reasons, out indefinitely).

"It makes it hard for the rotation," said East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries, who had nothing but praise for the North Stars.

"Neari is the quarterback of the team, the coach is doing a great job with the team, they are unselfish, they play hard, and they are a well prepared basketball team," Jeffries said.

"Anyone would have difficulties coming in here and winning."

Normally East Aurora's defense is the one forcing its opponents into mistakes, but the North Stars took a page out of the Tomcats' book by creating 25 East Aurora turnovers, including 15 in the second half.

"It helped not to have to worry about Weathersby, but we worked defensively this week in practice on working together," Poulin said. "That's kind of been our focus since our holiday tournament to shore up our man-to-man defense. We're getting better at it."

The North Stars are getting better at pretty much everything.

"It was good to come back and get a victory over them," DeMoss said. "We played together as a team and got it done tonight."