St. Charles North finishes against Waubonsie Valley
Waubonsie Valley put itself in position, but St. Charles North finished.
The hosts whittled down a double-figure deficit when St. Charles North countered for a 57-53 Upstate Eight Conference victory on Friday in Aurora.
On the wrong end of a 12-6 run, David Johnson's long 3-pointer from the left wing regained the North Stars' footing. The senior guard found a rare opening in the tight defense played by Waubonsie's Tyler Perkins.
"I was like, 'I'm going to shoot this one,' because I didn't have very many open shots," said Johnson, who scored a game-high 16 points. "You've got to let the ones that are open, you've got to let them fly."
St. Charles North (14-10, 6-3) lacked junior forward Josh Mikes due to lower back pain. The North Stars could never put the Warriors away but never trailed.
Big Ryan Brown scored 11 points, Beau Blakeley had 10, Kyle Nelson 8. Coach Tom Poulin got quality minutes from Sean Donlevy and Scott Hedges off the bench.
"He's a good basketball player, so you definitely miss him," Poulin said of Mikes, who leads the North Stars with 15 points and 6 rebounds a game. "But I thought we played confidently. I don't think we missed a beat, really."
Waubonsie Valley (5-16, 2-5) rallied from a 48-37 fourth-quarter hole. Two Jakobi Johnson steals, a Tyler Edmondson dunk, 4 quick points from Mark Szott and a Johnson putback had the Warriors within 50-47 with 3:30 left to play.
"That's the only thing I can ask for our guys, is to put themselves in position there, to be there (defending) and battling and play hard," said Warriors coach Steve Weemer, heartened by Perkins' 13 points, 11 from Jakobi Johnson and Alex Edmondson's team-high 14.
David Johnson answered 2 straight turnovers with his momentum-cutting 3 that put St. Charles North up 53-47 with 1:53 to play. Leading 55-51, Hedges got an offensive rebound, was fouled and hit 2 free throws with 34 seconds left. Waubonsie missed its next two shots.
"(St. Charles North had) a lot of offensive rebounds where we didn't box out and they got putbacks," Perkins said. "That was our biggest problem, just the little things we need to get over."