North Stars come oh so close to snagging Jacobs trophy
St. Charles North basketball - the Buffalo Bills of the Jacobs Holiday Classic.
OK, maybe it's not the title the North Stars wanted to hear Saturday night, but it's meant as a compliment.
You know how hard it is to get to four Super Bowls in a row? One team in the history of the NFL has done it.
The North Stars are almost there when it comes to their annual trips to Jacobs, now with three straight runner-up finishes after a 59-54 loss to Barrington Saturday night in as physical of a basketball game I've seen this side of Geneva-DeKalb.
Like the Bills, the North Stars have yet to get over the hump and win the final game.
Unlike the Bills, the North Stars are getting closer every year. While Buffalo's best shot came in its first Super Bowl, the North Stars are closing the gap each year, from a 29-point loss in 2007 to 19 points last year to 5 this season.
That doesn't provide much solace. What might provide a little more is getting to the championship game this year with just one returning starter compared to their senior-dominated team a season ago.
"It says a lot about our guys," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "We were kind of expected to get this far in the past, the last two years. Outside of the 16 guys wearing blue jerseys tonight and the coaching staff I don't know too many other people who expected us to get here."
Unfortunately for Poulin, he had to play much of the first half with that one returning starter - now a two-time Jacobs all-tournament selection Josh Mikes - next to him on the bench in foul trouble.
It was the bizarre nature of his second foul that got the North Stars faithful riled up with the officials the rest of the night. While trying to secure a loose ball, Mikes appeared to get tied up with a Barrington player.
Waiting for a jump ball to be whistled, the call instead was not only a foul on Mikes but an intentional foul. It sent Mikes to the bench for the final 8:18 of the first half.
"It was just a hustle play by two kids and they rolled over with dual possession and somehow it's an intentional foul on our guy," Poulin said. "It was a tough one to understand."
While it's never a good thing to see your leading scorer and rebounder sitting, the play did seem to spark the North Stars.
Trailing 14-2 at the time - on 1-of-9 shooting from the field and 7 turnovers in the first quarter - the North Stars outscored Barrington 20-13 in the second quarter to pull within 5 at halftime.
"It might have fired us up," said Poulin, who was disappointed with their initial energy. "We should have been fired up when we came out of the locker room."
With Mikes out, it gave others a chance to shine. Adam Bernthal had a pair of stickbacks, Scott Hedges a key 3-point play in the fourth quarter and Ryan Brown provided toughness inside. Starting guards David Johnson and Chris Conrad combined for 16 of their 28 points in the first half to pick up the scoring slack.
Three times the North Stars came back to tie the game, and two other occasions they pulled within 1. They never took the lead, twice turning the ball over late in the fourth quarter, the most painful a 5-second call with 30 seconds to go in a 53-52 game.
"You can't dig yourself a hole like we dug," Poulin said. "It's tough to come back from that and then have something left at the end."
Give credit to Barrington - 16 of 19 free-throw shooting didn't give the North Stars, who were 10 of 11 themselves, any breaks in catching up.
Considering everything the North Stars had to overcome, it's pretty impressive to see them finish where they did. Their showing certainly points to a strong second-half run.
And here's predicting if St. Charles North finds itself in a fourth straight Jacobs championship game next year, you won't be able to compare them to the Bills anymore. With a nucleus like Mikes, Conrad and Kyle Nelson, they will finally get to take that elusive Jacobs championship trophy home.
jlemon@dailyherald.com