Turnovers hurt North Stars in 3rd-place game
Better wasn't quite good enough for the St. Charles North girls basketball team Tuesday night in the Charger Classic third-place game.
The North Stars took better care of the ball than the night before, but they still had a few too many mistakes in 49-44 loss to Mother McAuley.
Senior Kelsey Smith did everything she could, scoring 30 of the 44 points on 12-of-14 shooting from the field and 6 of 7 at the line. She also grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked 4 shots.
That wasn't quite enough to make up for 22 turnovers, or 4-of-23 shooting by the other North Stars.
"You couldn't ask for much more from Kelsey," St. Charles North coach Katie Sauber said. "They scored 19 points off turnovers, you cut that in half, there's the game for us. A lot of those turnovers weren't forced."
The North Stars (9-4) said they handled the press better than Monday night, when they got rattled and let a fourth-quarter lead slip away against New Trier.
But they still had problems with the miscues, turning the ball over 11 times in the fourth quarter. They had 7 turnovers in the first quarter before settling down in the second and third.
"Turnovers are always the most important thing," point guard Kiley Hackbarth said. "Compared to last night we improved phenomenally. Last night we just buckled. I'm proud of us tonight."
Anna Conrad's 3-pointer brought the North Stars within 45-42 with 3:07 remaining, the closest St. Charles North got in the fourth quarter. Two more turnovers helped end any comeback hopes.
"I think we go a little too fast, we just need to take a deep breath and we should be fine," Smith said.
McAuley (11-4) had no answer for Smith, who scored 16 of the North Stars' first 18 points. While St. Charles North never led in the game, it also never fell behind by more than 9, and it was a 4- to 7-point game most of the night.
Smith stayed hot after halftime, scoring 12 straight North Star points from early in the third quarter to midway through the fourth.
"She's going to get her points no matter how she gets them, you are never going to hold a kid like that scoreless," McAuley coach Karen Ade said. "She's very hard to guard. We figured she would get her points but we were just trying to shut everyone else down."
Hackbarth added 8 points and Jenna Bell pulled down 8 rebounds for the North Stars, who despite the two losses to end the tournament improved from an 11th-place finish last year to fourth this season.
"Looking at it positively we did a lot better than 11th but we did want to finish with a better record in the tournament," Smith said. "The New Trier game we had. There are definitely things to improve on but we're happy that we finished better."
Fenwick 61, New Trier 53: Fenwick won its fifth straight Charger Classic championship and eighth in the last 10 years by knocking off New Trier. Trish Liston scored 22 points and had 7 rebounds to lead the Friars (12-2) while Serafina Nuzzo added 15 points and Katelyn Payne had 14. Abbe Schmitt scored a game and tournament-high 32 points for New Trier (15-2).