St. Charles North finishes off Bartlett

The St. Charles North boys basketball team proved it has the ability and can summon the determination to overcome a bad start.

A very bad start.

Visiting Bartlett rushed out to a 20-5 lead after one quarter, but it was all North Stars the rest of the way as they dominated and cruised to a 71 - 51 win, improving to 9-5 overall, and 3-1 in the Upstate Eight Conference.

"We've been down big before, and when the score was 20-5 nobody on our bench looked like the game was over," said St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin. "We made some corrections and the guys continued to plug away."

The Hawks owned both ends of the court during the first quarter by bullying the boards and controlling tempo. In limiting St. Charles North to just 1 shot per possession, a shot that wasn't dropping, Bartlett was able to trigger its fastbreak and score easily in transition.

But after posting 20 points in the first eight minutes, the Hawks netted just 6 over the next 101/2.

"The first quarter didn't matter," said Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith. "(St. Charles North) did a really good job of coming back and we didn't respond well."

St. Charles North began taking the ball to the hoop and challenging the Hawks' defense. Mike Kastel entered the game and gave the North Stars a much needed lift, scoring 6 of his 16 points in the second quarter.

"My teammates started finding me in the second and third quarters and that gave me a chance to make an impact," Kastel said.

By the midway mark of the second quarter, the North Stars had closed the gap to 5 as they pieced together a 13-0 run. Nick Neari, who scored 11 in the second quarter and 19 overall, split a pair of free throws with 37 seconds left in the half, tying the game at 26-26.

"All we had to do was settle down and take what they gave us," Neari said.

St. Charles North carried a 30-26 lead and all of the momentum into the break. But Poulin made it clear to his players during the halftime talk that their work was just beginning.

"We've been a little slow in how we've started our third quarters this year," Poulin said. "We couldn't allow Bartlett to get back on top."

With the score on their side, the North Stars were able to build on their momentum. When David Johnson (11 points) scored in the waning seconds of the third quarter, St. Charles North had its biggest lead, 53-42.

"We've got some pieces to the puzzle that teams need to be successful," Poulin said. "When we play well we get contributions from a lot of players."

After being shutout in the first half, Bartlett's Marc Little scored 20 points in the final two quarters, and fought to keep his team in the game. But despite Little's effort and 23 points from Luke Labedzki, the Hawks (8-4, 2-1) appeared to be out of sync for much of the final 24 minutes.

"We stopped playing defense and rested on the fact that we'd hit some shots," Wolfsmith said. "We just didn't play the game very well."