St. Charles East upsets St. Charles N.

Determined and deliberate, St. Charles East's girls basketball team delivered a season-ending message to cross-town rival St. Charles North Thursday night.

Showing few effects from their 50-33 loss to the North Stars nearly a month ago (Jan. 24), the Saints (16-13) derailed the top-seeded team's tournament hopes with a stunning 41-37 overtime victory in the Class 4A South Elgin regional championship.

"I can't say enough about the way the girls played," said Saints coach Lori Drumtra, who guided her team to its first regional title since 2006. "I did very little - they just played their hearts out."

Alex Messacar's putback gave the North Stars (20-9) their biggest lead of the night at 32-25 with 3 minutes remaining in regulation, but the second-seeded Saints weren't rattled.

Lexi Baltes, who scored a team-high 17 points with four 3-pointers, calmly drained a 3-pointer on their next possession to make it 32-28.

After Kara Schnier (6 points) scored a basket inside to pull the Saints within 2 at 32-30 with 1:15 left, junior guard Steph Roan picked off a pass and was eventually fouled. Her 2 free throws with 58.2 seconds remaining forced overtime with the score tied at 32-all.

Jenna Bell split a pair of foul shots to give St. Charles North an early 33-32 lead during the 4-minute extra session before Baltes' fourth 3-pointer of the evening put the Saints on top 35-33 with 1:39 left - their first lead since the midway point of the second quarter (13-12).

"She was possessed," Drumtra said of Baltes. "She definitely wanted this game today."

Fifteen seconds later, a pair of free throws by North Stars senior center Kelsey Smith (19 points, 8 rebounds) tied the game at 35-all.

Moments later, Smith was called for an intentional foul and Roan split two foul shots before hitting an off-balance, 12-foot jumper with 48 seconds left to put the Saints up 38-35.

"I think my coach was probably wishing I didn't shoot that one," admitted the 5-foot-5 Roan, who pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to go with 7 points. "I just saw the opening. That's a shot I'm always working on."

"It wasn't quite the shot that I wanted," said Drumtra. "I was kind of yelling at her not to take it but in hindsight-

"We were up by 1 at that point and didn't really need to shoot. Maybe it surprised them as well because it certainly surprised me that she took it. Now I'm glad she did."

After the North Stars misfired on a potential game-tying 3-pointer, senior Tasha Lalos (6 points) connected on 3 free throws over the final 18.6 seconds to seal the decision - and kick off a celebratory scene at midcourt.

"We focused (in practice) just like we would for any other game - but let me tell you, this is not any other game," said Baltes, whose team only committed 13 turnovers. "I didn't know a feeling like this even

existed."

Last year, the North Stars handed the Saints a 45-22 defeat in the regional finals at Larkin.

"We've taken our beatings from North," said Drumtra. "But even though that was a 17-point defeat earlier this year the girls walked off the court feeling all right. They said, 'next time it's going to be a game.'"

"We knew we were the underdogs," said Baltes, whose team committed just 13 turnovers. "We knew nobody believed in us but us. We had a lot of faith in ourselves and that helped us tonight."

While the Saints prepare to face either Jacobs or Crystal Lake South in Monday night's sectional semifinal at Jacobs, the North Stars' postseason plans came to an abrupt halt.

"Unfortunately tonight, things didn't go as planned," said North Stars coach Katie Sauber. "My heart breaks for these seniors that don't get the opportunity to try this again next year."

Seniors like 4-year varsity stalwarts Anna Conrad and the 6-foot-4 Smith.

"We didn't execute when we needed to," said the Michigan State-bound Smith. "We had so many goals and just didn't play well."