St. Charles North gets back on track, downs Schaumburg

One team came in with a 2-game winning streak.

The other entered off of back-to-back losses suffered last weekend.

On Tuesday night, they experienced a definite role reversal as defensive-minded St. Charles North (5-4) handed visiting Schaumburg (7-3) a 54-38 nonconference boys basketball defeat in St. Charles.

While holding the Saxons to a season-low point total, the North Stars' suffocating defense limited the visitors to 24 percent shooting for the game (13-for-54) - 19 percent in the first 16 minutes when St. Charles North grabbed a 23-12 halftime advantage.

"It was definitely our communication," said junior forward Josh Mikes, who scored a game-high 13 points for the North Stars. "We focused communicating on defense way more than we have been in the past.

"We watched film and learned a little about them. We knew we had to come out strong after the tough weekend we had (losses to Bartlett and Rockford Jefferson). We really had to focus, lock down and get our season back on track."

It was Mikes who helped ignite a 17-0 surge over an 8-minute stretch from the latter stages of the first quarter through the second quarter with 6 points as the North Stars turned a 6-6 deadlock into a 23-6 lead.

Schaumburg, which didn't receive a single point from its starters until a steal and layup from Josh Walker (11 points) in the final seconds of the opening half, was held scoreless for nearly 11 and a half minutes.

"We really respected their perimeter players so by switching, getting out and denying, and trying to take reversals away - we tried to take them out of their game a little bit," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin. "To be able to jump out on them and defend them to the point where they get 12 points in a half gave us confidence going into the third quarter."

St. Charles North showed no sign of letting up in the second half, as it went on an 11-3 run capped by Scott Hedges' 3-point play to extend the lead to 37-17 midway through the third quarter.

Beau Blakeley (10 points) and Mikes combined for 12 of the North Stars' 16 third-quarter points as they carried a 39-26 lead into the final period.

"We haven't had the strongest third quarters this season but I thought that we came out with energy in the third quarter tonight and really focused on getting stops and letting our offense take care of itself," Poulin said.

"We haven't had a ton of experience playing with a large lead so this was good for us. Now we believe we can get a lead against a quality basketball team."

David Johnson (8 points), Chris Conrad (6 points) and Kyle Nelson (6 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocked shots) also contributed for the North Stars, who entertain York Thursday night.

Javon McDonald added 7 points for Schaumburg.

"They beat us in every facet of the game," said Saxons coach Matt Walsh. "It looked like we played a good team that lost a couple games in a row and was hungry, and we looked like a good team that was complacent, had won a couple games in a row and really lacked a sense of urgency.

"We had no energy. We had no intensity."