North Stars hold off Storm's comeback
On a night where outside shots weren't falling and turnovers were all too commonplace, St. Charles North's girls basketball team scored enough points to get past South Elgin Friday night.
Just enough.
The North Stars (11-4, 4-0) withstood a furious fourth-quarter comeback to slip past the visiting Storm 43-42 in Upstate Eight Conference action.
Misfiring on their first nine 3-point attempts, the North Stars' Anna Conrad canned a long-distance jumper to give the home team their biggest lead of the night at 37-24 with 5:02 remaining.
That's when Genevieve Johnson and Alyssa Krause helped fuel a 13-2 run that enabled South Elgin (10-7, 2-3) to pull within 39-37 with 40 seconds left.
Johnson, who tallied 9 of her game-high 14 points in the fourth quarter, drained a pair of 3-pointers during the late surge.
But Conrad, who scored all 7 of her points in the final period, nailed 4 consecutive free throws over the last 30 seconds to provide just enough breathing room for the North Stars.
"Everything is a steppingstone," said North Stars coach Katie Sauber, "and we've got to use it as a learning tool - and we will.
"A win's a win. I'm not going to sell them short because they're a good team. They were able to beat Waubonsie (Valley) by knocking down their outside shots. We were lucky they weren't hitting along with us."
Held to 20 points through the first three quarters, South Elgin was unable to overcome 2-of-11 accuracy from beyond the arc, 6-of-15 free-throw shooting, 18 turnovers and a 19-11 offensive rebounding differential which led to 19 second-chance points by the North Stars.
"We only scored 11 points in the first half," said Storm coach Tim Prendergast. "We're a team that averages 57 points a game. I thought we just got a little careless with the ball.
"Our free-throw shooting was poor tonight and we're almost a 70 percent shooting team. And we gave up way too many offensive rebounds. Whenever they did get a basket, it pretty much was off of an offensive rebound."
North Stars junior forward Jenna Bell was the primary thorn in the side of the Storm, finishing with 12 rebounds, 8 on the offensive glass, to go with her team-leading 13 points.
"She played great help defense, she pulled down some important rebounds for us and knocked down some nice shots," Sauber said of Bell's steadying influence. "She's been dependable for us and that's a comfort. She really has developed and we're all confident in her abilities."
"I try to get more looks for other people and just be a team player," said Bell, who added 4 assists and 3 steals.
North Stars 6-foot-4 center Kelsey Smith chipped in with 12 points against South Elgin's recently implemented defensive scheme.
"I thought my assistant coach, Stephanie Smith, came up with a great game plan," said Prendergast. "She came up with the 2-2-1 zone and then all week we practiced against it. Stephanie, a Hampshire graduate who went on to play at NIU, played the role of Kelsey Smith and we couldn't get the ball to her all week.
"I thought defensively we put together a great game plan against them but unfortunately we couldn't get anything going offensively."
Dijon Smith added 9 points for the Storm.