St. Charles North takes it to South Elgin
DeKALB - South Elgin's Jordan Dobler ruined St. Charles North's Senior Night a few weeks back.
North Stars' senior Jonathan DeMoss gave it right back to Dobler and the rest of the Storm in Friday night's Class 4A DeKalb regional title game.
DeMoss finished with a game-high 21 points and led a suffocating defensive effort that held South Elgin to a single point in the first quarter. South Elgin was never able to recover, with North taking a 60-42 victory for its first regional crown since 2005 and denying the Storm its first piece of boys basketball postseason hardware.
"We got beat when I was a sophomore and a junior - it's about time," DeMoss said referring to North's loss in its past two regional title games.
The North Stars now await Rockford Auburn, a 57-43 victor over Rockton Hononegah, in semifinal action of the Class 4A Elgin sectional at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
North (21-8) plans on bringing the same 1-3-1 zone that held South Elgin (19-9) to just 28 percent (14-of-50) from the floor in Friday's game. The North Stars opened in a man defense, but coach Tom Poulin was confident that as soon as his team built a lead, it would be able to switch to a 1-3-1 zone.
The North Stars went up 9-1 midway through the first quarter and the Storm was never able to shoot North out of its zone. South Elgin missed its first 12 shots of the game, including going 0-for-8 in the first quarter.
"That (the zone defense) was something different we didn't do the first time we played them," Poulin said. "We wanted to take away their primary option. We knew if we jumped out to a lead we would be able to go to that zone. We were fortunate to jump out to a lead."
Adding to the South Elgin troubles was North's aggressive approach on the glass. Mike Kastel finished with 14 rebounds as North held a 20-board advantage (33-13) on the glass. Despite missing all of its shots in the opening quarter, the Storm did not record a rebound until Alex Sanchez snared South Elgin's lone board with 1:22 left and North leading 11-1.
It wasn't until junior guard Tommy Childs started thinking from the South Elgin bench that the Storm's offense began to cultivate. Childs scored the first South Elgin field goal to cut North's lead to 18-5 with 5:25 left in the second quarter.
Childs went on to score 20 of the Storm's first 28 points and shot 66.6 percent (8 of 12) from the floor to go along with 2 assists and a steal. Childs also got to see firsthand how well North's 1-3-1 zone worked on South Elgin array of sharpshooters.
"I was sitting there on the bench and thinking that we needed a spark," Childs said. "I tried to give that. They were ready for us. They knew what we were doing and they were ready for all our plays."
Childs nailed all 5 of South Elgin's 5 first-half field goals and finished with 13 points in the third quarter to cut the North Stars' lead to 29-16 by halftime. Dobler scored on the opening possession of the second half, but could not convert the 3-point play.
The North Stars responded with a 9-2 run to jack their lead to 38-20 with 3:12 left in the third. Kyle Osborne was the Storm's next leading scorer with 6 points off of two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, while the North Stars got double-digit efforts from Nick Neari (14 points, 2 steals) and David Johnson (10 points).
"(Childs) did a great job coming off the bench, but we needed everyone to step up," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "We shot 10 percent from 3s in the first half. We were shooting wide-open shots, they just weren't going in."