Stars hit all-time high with 18 wins

The North Stars have never shined so brightly.

The St. Charles North boys basketball team notched a program-record 18th victory with a 72-49 nonconference victory at Burlington Central on Tuesday night.

"We definitely put some stock in it," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said of the record. " We've played a tough schedule and to get 18 wins with our schedule says a lot about the guys we have, the type of people we have and they work ethic those people have. We're real proud. We're going to build on it and, hopefully, continue to add some more wins to it."

Burlington Central (11-11) jumped to an 8-0 lead on a pair of 3-pointers by senior Dan Berg and a baseline jumper by junior Shane Larkin, but St. Charles North (18- turned up the defensive pressure and outscored the Rockets 37-10 the rest of the half.

"They came out and hit some shots," DeMoss said. "Our big guys don't usually come out to the perimeter, but they're big guy was hitting shots from outside. But we started slowly building a lead after that."

The North Stars went on a 13-0 run to take the lead. Senior guard Nick Neari made 5 steals and DeMoss converted 4 fast-break baskets for 8 of his 16 points, all of which he scored in the first half.

Twelve North Stars found the scoring column. Sophomore Josh Mikes finished with 15 points, thanks to an 11-point third quarter that helped St. Charles North outscore the Rockets 18-10 to take a 55-28 lead.

"They're pretty solid," said Larkin, who tied teammate Ray Hunnicutt for team scoring honors with 8 points. "They have good fundamentals all around. You can't concentrate on one guy on offense. They share the ball well and challenge you."

The win was the 10th in 11 games for St. Charles North, which has only 1 loss in the Upstate Eight Conference, tying it with Neuqua Valley and East Aurora. The senior-dominated North Stars were too strong for Central, which started a freshman and two juniors.

"I don't want to use being young as an excuse, but I don't know if our kids are ready for that," Central coach Chris Payne said. "Last year's kids were, but I don't think this year's group is ready to play that type of team yet."