St. Charles North rolls over Prairie Ridge
Basketball is a game where player movement and unselfishness are never trivial. When combined with rugged defense it is a virtually impregnable fortress.
The St. Charles North boys teams displayed all three elements Tuesday evening at the Jacobs Holiday Classic in Algonquin, throttling Prairie Ridge 69-36 to advance to the semifinals for the third consecutive year.
The North Stars (8-5) will meet Upstate Eight Conference rival Bartlett (8-3), which outraced Mundelein 92-84, at 6 p.m. tonight. Prairie Ridge fell to 5-6.
"That's pretty darn close to the best we've played this year," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "We really wanted to defend their half-court sets. This is the most unselfish we've played. We made the extra pass."
Four of the five St. Charles North starters finished with double-digit point production to flavor the one-sided game in which the North Stars never trailed.
Chris Conrad hit back-to-back 3-pointers to jump-start the offense for the North Stars, who scored 8 of the first 9 points. Prairie Ridge would close to within two midway through the first quarter, but St. Charles North used a dominant 20-8 run to double up the Wolves at 28-14 late in the opening half.
The players were singularly united for the North Stars.
"We wanted to keep that St. Charles North tradition and reach the championship game," said guard Blakely, who finished with 12 points. "We were breaking them down tonight (on offense). We just wanted to run our stuff and take time off the clock."
Harassing the Wolves into a collective 11-for-51 from the field, St. Charles North ran the break to perfection, underlining the basketball adage that good teams score easy baskets.
When the running attack was slowed, the North Stars' patience was equally rewarded with its jump-shot arsenal or feeds into the post. David Johnson had 11 of his team-high 16 points after halftime, which ended with St. Charles North holding a 35-24 lead.
St. Charles North had more production in the third quarter than Prairie Ridge did in the entire second half. Poulin was able to substitute liberally over the last 10 minutes of play, and nine players ultimately found the scoring column for St. Charles North. Prairie Ridge had no solution for Josh Mikes' athleticism, and the junior forward augmented his 12 points with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks. Conrad had all 11 of his points before the intermission.
"We try to pass up a good shot for a better shot," said Mikes.
Chad Ljunggren was the one bright spot for Prairie Ridge. The senior guard scored 15 of his game-high 20 points in the opening half.
"It was a very poorly-played game by us," said Prairie Ridge coach Corky Card said. "I didn't think we competed very well. They really stuck it to us."