St. Charles North fends off St. Charles East's rally
Talk about a tough act - make that three acts - to follow.
St. Charles East and St. Charles North took the court in the nightcap Friday of the 51st annual St. Charles East Ron Johnson Thanksgiving tournament following three games decided by a total of four points: Hales Franciscan 98, East Aurora 97 (in overtime); Proviso East 60, Downers Grove South 58 and Proviso West 49, St. Joseph 48.
When the Saints overcame a 13-point deficit to take their first lead of the game with five minutes to go, it looked like there might be one more buzzer beater to come.
St. Charles North had other ideas, scoring the final 11 points of the game to hand the Saints their third straight loss, 58-51.
"That was encouraging to see us come back and push through at the end," said North Stars junior point guard Chris Conrad, whose team bounced backed from a 43-point loss to Proviso East Wednesday.
"We said we never wanted to do what we did Wednesday. We looked beat. Even when we went down four (tonight) coach said we didn't look beat."
After leading for the first three quarters, the North Stars (2-1) watched Zack Burns and Spencer Motley combine for 10 points in a 10-1 Saints run to grab a 44-42 lead on Burns' 4th 3-pointer of the night, assisted by Motley.
After Conrad's drive put the North Stars ahead 47-46, Charlie Fisher and Motley scored on consecutive possessions attacking the basket, giving the Saints a 51-47 lead with 3:37 left.
Unfortunately for Brian Clodi's crew, that would be their last points. Josh Mikes, who had been quiet most of the night with only 6 field goal attempts, got the ball from Beau Blakeley and David Johnson for two straight field goals that put the North Stars up 53-51.
Mikes blocked a shot on the other end that could have tied the game with 1:30 remaining. Kyle Nelson, Conrad and Johnson made 5 of 6 free throws from there, sending the North Stars into the third place game at 6 p.m. today against East Aurora.
"We tend to keep teams in games with mistakes," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "We'll get better every game. We made poor decisions with the basketball, we got stuck in a rut and they picked it up a notch. You have to credit St. Charles East kids with wanting it more for a stretch there."
Conrad led the North Stars with 20 points, Mikes (10 points, 11 rebounds) had a double-double, Johnson added 13 points and Scott Hedges (4 points) and Adam Bernthal (5 points) combined for 9 bench points.
Burns was on fire for the Saints, hitting all 4 of his 3-point shots while scoring 21 - but the rest of the team was 1 of 19. Jess Striedl and Spencer Motley both scored 10 points.
St. Charles East, who plays St. Joseph at 2:30 p.m. today, was outrebounded for the third straight game.
"We work hard to take a 4-point lead and don't finish," Clodi said. "They are not flowing together. It is one guy, two guys, instead of getting three or four."