St. Charles North keeps its cool, dumps Downers South
St. Charles North found itself right where Downers Grove South wanted to be in the season opener for both teams Tuesday night at the 51st annual St. Charles East Thanksgiving tournament.
The North Stars built a 10-point halftime lead, withstood a Mustang charge in the third quarter, then put away a 59-54 victory by sinking 13 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter.
Josh Mikes broke the fourth and final tie of the fourth quarter with a layup on a feed from junior guard Chris Conrad, giving the North Stars at 54-52 lead with 53 seconds remaining.
David Johnson, who like Conrad went 6 for 6 at the free-throw line, hit four straight for a 58-52 cushion with 13 seconds left.
"They delivered a blow in the third quarter and we defended ourselves pretty well," said Conrad. "That was encouraging to see."
Conrad, one of four new starters in the lineup after the North Stars graduated most of the regulars off last year's regional championship team, got his season off to a great start with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.
Mikes, the lone returning starter, lead all scorers with 19 points and Johnson hit three 3-pointers in scoring 17.
"I'll give St. Charles credit, they did what we wanted to do," Downers South coach Jay Baum said. "We wanted to get a lead in the fourth quarter and make the other team come after us. They executed their stuff."
The North Stars (1-0) scored the final 7 points of a back-and-forth first quarter to lead 16-11, then extended the advantage to as much as 33-19 by shooting 55 percent from the field in the first half.
Sophomore Jamall Millison's 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer drew the Mustangs (0-1) within 33-23, then Downers South kept its comeback going with a 15-4 run to start the third quarter to regain the lead.
"That's a good basketball team, we're not going to run and hide from a team like that," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "We're going to have to play 32 minutes. We were sloppy at time but still composed. I like they had to trap and chase us and sometimes that's us trying to make a furious comeback in a tournament like this."
After the Mustangs took their lone lead of the second half at 38-37, the North Stars went back on top on Johnson's 3-pointer. Two free throws by Biedi Dervishi tied the game at 40 entering the fourth quarter.
Downers South never led in the fourth, yet stayed close throughout and made it 52-52 with Dervishi's 3-point play with just over a minute remaining.
It wasn't quite enough against a North Star team that played smart down the stretch, turning the ball over just once in the fourth quarter.
"The last few minutes we were able to execute like we needed," Mikes said. "We were able to get our plays run that we needed. When we needed to waste time we did that. When we needed a basket we were able to do that."
The 6-foot-6 Dervishi had 17 points and 11 boards, with 6-7 Zygimantas Riauka coming off the bench with 12 points. Millison also scored 12 points as the Mustangs reserves outscored St. Charles North 27-0.
"We didn't play well," Baum said. "It's not how I expected us to start the season. We'll be back tomorrow playing hard. We made a lot of mistakes, fouling guys at the wrong time, bad shot selection."
The North Stars also learned a lesson.
"We were a little too relaxed," Conrad said of the third quarter. "That's when you have to push it from 10 to 20. But instead it went from 10 to zero. We have to work on pushing it."
Kyle Nelson and Beau Blakeley both added 6 points for the North Stars, who play Proviso East at p.m. today. Poulin also credited solid bench play from Scott Hedges, Adam Bernthal and Sean Donlevy.
"I'm not sure if I've been prouder of a team early in the year," Poulin said. "They came and did exactly what we want to do. I'm proud of them coming out and competing every possession."