Practice makes perfect for St. Charles N.

Sometimes it's the subtle things that turn out to be most important.

After spending the majority of the week working on passing and offensive patience, St. Charles North's girls basketball team blistered the nets with 55 percent shooting from the floor while recording season-high point production during Friday night's 69-33 Upstate Eight Conference triumph over Neuqua Valley in St. Charles.

A quick peek at the final statistical numbers told the story for the North Stars (6-2, 2-0), who dished out 23 assists and connected on 57 percent (8-of-14) of their 3-point attempts while dissecting the Wildcats (5-4, 0-2).

"We've really been talking in practice about being more patient on offense and swinging the ball because it's going to create a lot more open looks," said 6-4 senior center Kelsey Smith, who led the North Stars with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 5 blocked shots in 23 minutes of action.

"As you saw tonight, it definitely did. I think everyone did a good job of swinging it and then getting an open one (shot) in."

Leading 23-16 with 2 minutes remaining in the first half, the North Stars scored the final 6 points of the period to build a 29-16 halftime advantage.

Anna Conrad, who finished with 12 points - all coming on 3-pointers - canned a long-distance shot from the corner, while junior Dana Sibley (9 points, 8 rebounds) came off the bench to add 3 points during the late 6-0 surge.

"We got a lot better looks, inside and outside," said North Stars coach Katie Sauber. "We've been looking for better ball movement. That's what we worked on this week (at practice) and it paid off tonight."

St. Charles North put the game away by scoring the first 15 points of the third quarter to take an insurmountable 44-16 lead.

Three-pointers from Alex Messacar (4 assists) and Conrad (5 assists, 5 rebounds) keyed the surge, as the Wildcats were held scoreless for more than 7 minutes.

"When you shoot 22 percent (10-of-45), you're not going to win," said Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams. "The biggest thing when you're playing a game like this is that you can't miss easy shots early on and we were missing easy shots. "We've got a ton of young kids (4 freshmen, 3 sophomores) and when you get in a situation against a seasoned team like this you expect those things. I'm not concerned. I'll be concerned if it's January 15th and we're still doing the same things."

Danielle Stanciel paced the Wildcats with 5 points.

Meanwhile, the North Stars received balanced production from Jenna Bell (9 points), Kiley Hackbarth (4 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds) and Tess Fischer (6 points).

While facing a rugged early season schedule against Morgan Park, Von Steuben, Montini and Maine South, the North Stars have been held under 45 points in 5 of their first 7 games - until Friday.

"All of our games have had spurts of offensive flow but we started to put it together a little bit more tonight," said Smith, whose team has little time to rest in anticipation of today's 2:30 p.m. clash at Schaumburg.

"Just look at our schedule - it's not weak whatsoever," said Sauber. "We need to see the best competition in whatever type of atmosphere we can to better prepare us for what we're going to see down the road."