Third-quarter run sparks North Stars
It didn't matter that St. Charles North's basketball team committed 22 turnovers, managed only 15 first-half points and didn't have a single player reach double figures.
As far as Jake Thornton and his teammates were concerned, it was a perfect Senior Night.
That's because the North Stars (16-10) recorded their seventh victory in eight games, rallying for a 47-40 nonconference triumph over Deerfield Saturday night in St. Charles.
"As long as we got the win, that's all that counts," said Thornton, who finished with 7 points. "One more (win) and we tie the team record (17)."
Despite committing 16 first-half turnovers while trying to combat the Warriors' 1-3-1 zone defense, the North Stars were still well within striking distance, trailing 21-15.
"That's why we put Deerfield on our schedule -- to give us a different look," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin. "We haven't seen a 1-3-1, obviously other than in practice and we haven't seen anyone spread the floor and attack us like that.
"We made plenty of mistakes on the defensive end and plenty of mistakes attacking the zone, but like I told the guys, it's always nice to learn from a win. We're going to be more prepared for the state tournament because of this game."
Slowing down the pace, Deerfield (7-14) took its biggest lead of the night at 25-18 on Jeff Stafman's driving layup midway through the third quarter.
From there, however, the Warriors failed to score another point over the next 6 minutes, and the North Stars capitalized, scoring the final 12 points of the quarter while taking a 30-25 lead.
The comeback began with Nick Neari's three-point play and continued with layups from Jonathon DeMoss and Tim Janeway before Mike Lefelstein's 3-pointer helped the North Stars take the lead for good at 28-25.
The eventual 16-0 surge extended the margin to 34-25 with 6:25 remaining.
"We had the tempo where we wanted it, but I thought we rushed some shots and took some bad shots," said Deerfield coach Greg Kapsimalis.
Deerfield pulled within a point at 38-37 in the last two minutes, but Thornton and Janeway each made a pair of free throws down the stretch to help the North Stars secure the victory.
Neari led the North Stars with 9 points.
"I thought the first five guys we put out there -- four seniors -- I was proud of the way they played to start the game," said Poulin. "Hopefully it was a good memory for them tonight."