St. Charles N. pounds Prairie Ridge inside

Zach Hirsch started St. Charles North's semifinal against Prairie Ridge Friday night at the Jacobs tournament by missing a shot.

Mike Kastel grabbed the rebound and missed, then got his own rebound and missed again.

The start of a long night for the North Stars?

Nope, the start of a busy night on the backboards.

Sophomore Josh Mikes scooped up Kastel's miss and put it in, the first basket in the North Stars' 60-49 victory that sends them to tonight's 7:30 p.m. championship game against host Jacobs. It's a rematch of last year's final that Jacobs won 82-53.

St. Charles North (7-4) figures to fare better this year if it can rebound like it did against Prairie Ridge (8-4). The North Stars finished with a 41-18 advantage.

Kastel (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Mikes (10 points, 10 rebounds) both had double-doubles while guards Mike Lefelstein and Nick Neari grabbed 5 boards and Jonathan DeMoss 4.

"All summer we stressed defense and rebounding," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "Now it is an effort issue. We are big at every position. If we put a body on people we should be able to rebound at least right there with them. When we put our mind to it we can rebound pretty well."

Mikes continued to play well since Poulin moved him into the starting lineup at this tournament.

"That gave me a lot of confidence to believe in myself and what I can do," said Mikes, who at 6-foot-4 gives the North Stars a starting lineup of 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and 6-7.

"Their size did give us a lot of problems early with their rebounding," Prairie Ridge coach Raymond Card said. "I think that first possession they shot about 12,000 shots."

The North Stars never trailed from there, leading 12-9 after one quarter and 26-16 at halftime.

Lefelstein's 3 gave St. Charles North the 10-point halftime lead. He scored 10 points off the bench, part of a balanced attack that started with Kastel's 12 points, then Mikes (10), Lefelstein (10), DeMoss (10) and Neari (9).

"We've got so many guys that can score," Kastel said.

The North Stars started slow in both the third and fourth quarters. In the third, they didn't score for the first 3:13, turning it over 3 times and missing 4 shots. Then they began the fourth 0-4 from the field.

Prairie Ridge took advantage, drawing within 40-36 when Chad Ljungren, 10 of 11 at the line in the game, made 2 free throws.

Kastel answered with 2 free throws, then a jumper for an 8-point lead. After Ben Rippel's steal and dunk made it 44-38, Hirsch's 3-pointer put the North Stars back up 9.

"Any time we made a mistake they capitalized on them," Card said. "They are good, they were the better team tonight."