St. Charles North 46, Hononegah 37
ROCKTON -- One of these days, someone's going to give St. Charles North's guards the credit they deserve.
While the North Stars' offense may revolve around 6-foot-4 junior Kelsey Smith, and rightfully so, it was North's guards who stood out Thursday night as St. Charles North won the program's first sectional championship, beating the host school 46-37 in the Class 4A Hononegah sectional.
"I'm just very happy for these girls," said North coach Katie Sauber, tears streaming down her cheeks as she watched her team celebrate. "We were prepared well and we knew what we had to do. It's another first for these girls. You can't ask for much more than what's going on here tonight."
With the win, the Stars (23-5) are among the final eight teams standing in Class 4A. They will battle top-ranked Buffalo Grove (31-3) at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the Elgin Community College supersectional hosted by Larkin. BG edged Wheeling 45-43 Thursday to win the Mundelein sectional.
While Smith led the way for North with a stellar 16-point, 16-rebound game, it was the North Stars' guard trio of senior Nika Sircher, junior Anna Conrad and sophomore Kiley Hackbarth who played what might have been their best defensive game of the season and helped hold Hononegah to a season-low 37 points.
"I thought they played really good defense," said Hononegah coach Tim Bukoski. "We could have executed better, and boy did we pick the wrong night to go cold."
The Indians (26-7) were just 5-for-22 from 3-point range in the game, the place they lived and died all season.
"They're definitely known for their outside game," said Smith of the Indians. "But our guards did a great job on defense tonight. People don't give our guards enough credit."
Hononegah, which made close to 200 3-pointers this season, started fast enough taking an early 8-2 lead on the strength of 3-pointers from Whitney Carroll and Courtney Shelton.
The Indians held a 10-7 lead after one quarter but Smith had scored the final points of the period to start North on a 9-0 run that created a 14-10 Stars lead with 5:06 to play in the first half. A basket by Carroll and a 3-pointer from Natalie Johnson put Hononegah back on top 15-14 at the 3:46 mark but Conrad and Smith scored the final 5 points of the second quarter, putting the North Stars on top 19-15 at halftime.
They never trailed again.
"In the beginning we were playing their game and we were a little rattled," said Sircher, who had 6 rebounds and 3 steals to go with 3 important free throws in the fourth quarter. "But we played our game the last three quarters."
North gave itself some breathing room in the third quarter, holding Hononegah to just 4 points and stretching the lead to 32-19 by the end of the period. Conrad (9 points, 5 assists) hit two 3-pointers in the quarter and Hackbarth (14 points, 8-for-8 free throws) made 1 as the Stars hit 5 of their 9 shots in the frame.
Hononegah did go on a run to start the fourth quarter and closed to within 34-31 after a Kate Young putback with 4:22 left to play. But North scored the next 7 points, and Hononegah never came closer than 5 the rest of the way.
Hackbarth was 6 of 6 from the line in the fourth quarter.
"We knew (Hononegah) could shoot from outside but our defense got it done tonight," Sauber said. "We shut down their outside game and took care of the ball against their pressure. They tried to take Kelsey out of the game and they did a nice job on her, but our guards took care of the ball and we hit some 3s."
And, it's on to the supersectional.
"It's just amazing," said Sircher. "There's no way to describe it. Last year we got knocked out in regionals and now we're going to the supers. Wow. It's absolutely amazing."