Senechalle, Saints hit on all cylinders

It hasn't been any better than this for St. Charles East.

Kevin Senechalle scored 30 points with 15 rebounds and Tim Russell added 15 points in a 64-51 nonconference win over Glenbard West on Saturday in St. Charles.

Suddenly rolling after an 0-11 start, St. Charles East (3-12) blew open a 9-point margin after three quarters to 58-40 on a Russell 3 with 3:06 left to play.

Moments later Senechalle threw down his career-high fourth dunk, the second off his own steal. The 6-foot-7 Senechalle and the 6-5 Russell left to appreciative applause as Saints coach Brian Clodi subbed them out.

"We played well together, everything just mixed," Senechalle said. "We had great support from all of our coaches and we played our hearts out and it paid off.

"We've won three out of our last four. We're really a different team. All our guys are flowing and things are working for us."

St. Charles East won the battle of the zone defenses in the first half, hitting 6 of 13 beyond the arc as Glenbard West (6-8) went 3 of 8.

Alec Thompson opened Glenbard West's scoring with two jumpers for a 4-2 Hilltoppers lead. Senechalle converted the first of his 3 three-point plays, Russell banged home a 3 and the Saints never trailed again.

"We played 100 percent together, we made the extra pass," Clodi said. "We did the little things it took to win. We took a charge, we had a lot of deflections, we're doing a lot of good things right now."

Trailing 28-21 at the half, the Hilltoppers crept within 34-31 on a Bryant Venson up-and-under layup only to have Senechalle score 7 points in a 10-4 run to close the quarter up 44-35.

"We wanted to try to keep some bigger bodies around their big kid, and their shooting pulled us out of that," said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder.

Until a too-late flurry of Hilltopper 3s it was all Saints. Zach Scott nabbed 2 steals in the fourth, one he converted himself and another he shuffled to Phil Kohlhagen who dished to Senechalle for the third dunk of his four-dunk night.

"We really lost it in the fourth quarter there. That double-zero (Senechalle) is good," said Kevin Smith, who joined Venson with 9 points for Glenbard West. Jud Anderson led with 13 and Tyler Warden added 10 points.

The biggest of the Saints' wins wasn't just good.

As Russell said, "It felt very good."