N. Stars run past Sabres

After a sluggish first quarter offensively, the St. Charles North girls basketball team had to speed up the pace.

And that's what the North Stars did, going on a 33-0 run en route to a 66-23 victory over the Streamwood Sabres in both teams' Upstate Eight Conference opener at Streamwood.

The North Stars (4-2, 1-0) never trailed, but the Sabres (1-4, 0-1) kept it tight trailing only 10-9 after an Emma Schmidt basket with 1:22 remaining in the quarter.

"We were in slow motion I felt in the first quarter," said North Stars coach Katie Sauber-Duraski. "The first quarter started off really slow and we had to speed the game up."

Kelsey Smith hit two from the line to give the North Stars a 12-9 lead entering the second quarter. The defense shutout the Sabres in the quarter and Streamwood trailed 35-9 at the break. Streamwood's next basket came with 5:55 left in the third quarter from Arielle Gallione.

"If you're a high school varsity basketball team you can't go a quarter without scoring," said Streamwood coach George Rosner. We didn't hit shots and they did."

The North Stars went 8 of 10 at the free throw line in the second while the rest of their points came from 3-pointers as Alex Messacar hit 2 while Kiley Hackbarth, Sydney Russell and Tess Fischer each hit single shots from behind the arc.

Smith led the North Stars with 12 points finishing the game 6 of 8 at the line while Anna Conrad added 10 points. Messacar and Jenna Bell each had 8, and Hackbarth and Fischer 7.

"It was definitely nice to come out with a win," Smith said. "It was kind of ugly at the start but after the first quarter we talked about stepping it up defensively."

The Sabres' leading scorer was Melissa Oehlerking with 6 points.

"(North's) an elite team," Rosner said. "They have all the potential to get down to state."