St. Charles North closes out Kankakee 65-56

St. Charles North boys basketball coach Tom Poulin had little knowledge of the North Stars' opponent on Monday afternoon.

"We didn't know a whole lot about Kankakee," Poulin admitted after the North Stars and Kays kicked off the Martin Luther King Day of Hoops at Joliet Central High School. "I made a couple of phone calls. We were learning on the fly."

St. Charles North had a perfect formula for its absence of a detailed scouting report, however, as the squad scored the final 10 points of the contest to earn a 65-56 victory.

Kankakee guard Joe Lightfoot slashed through the North Stars' defense to give the Kays their first lead, 56-55, since the halftime intermission. But Nick Nieri had the ideal antidote for St. Charles North (11-5). The senior answered 14 seconds later with a driving score of his own, and the North Stars reclaimed the lead for good with 2 minutes, 31 seconds to play.

Nieri was fouled on the play but failed to convert the free throw - to the North Stars' advantage. Kankakee (6-7) muffed the rebound out of bounds, and Josh Mikes' inside score made it a 4-point possession. After a Kankakee turnover on its ensuing possession, Nieri once again drove hard to the rack and converted a 3-point play.

Jonathan DeMoss, who scored a game-high 21 points to lead four North players in double figures, and Nieri then closed out the Kays from the free-throw line. Nieri finished with 14 points; Mikes added 12 points, and Zach Hirsch hit three 3-pointers to flavor his 11-point effort.

"They're a really quick and athletic defensive team," Nieri said of the Kays.

"We just adjusted to (the Kays' athleticism)," said DeMoss. "We've been (in similar situations) so many times. (The unanswered run) was not a big surprise. We shouldn't have put ourselves in that situation to begin with."

The game could not have been closer over the opening three quarters. Kankakee led by 3 after the opening quarter, and there were three ties in the final three minutes before halftime, which ended with the Kays nursing a 31-30 lead.

DeMoss' 3-pointer opened the second-half scoring, and the North Stars' had their largest lead of the afternoon, 43-36, when Hirsch hit the second of his long-range jumpers.

But Kankakee never wilted, and Anthony Lawrence had all 5 of his points in succession to keep the Kays close. Julian Bogan scored at the third-quarter buzzer to slice the North Stars' lead to 47-46, but Kankakee missed 5 straight free throws to start the fourth quarter.

"We didn't guard well enough to pull it out," Kankakee coach Ronnie Wilcox said. "We made too many mistakes offensively and defensively."

"We did a good job of executing down the stretch," Poulin said.

Lightfoot paced three Kankakee players in double digits with 17 points.