First-half hole dooms St. Charles North

St. Charles North could not have had a worse start against Zion-Benton in fourth-day action of Jacobs' Holiday Classic.

Josh Mikes' 2 first-quarter field goals was the all the offense the North Stars' boys basketball team could muster in the opening eight minutes, and their first-half lethargy resulted in the Zee-Bees scoring 21 of the first 25 points en route to a 65-54 victory Wednesday afternoon in Algonquin.

“We can't start games like that against anyone on our schedule and expect to win,” St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. “We didn't follow the game plan in the first quarter.”

Poulin became so exasperated with his starting five he removed the entire group en masse, but Z-B (9-3) continued its inexorable run.

Griffin Roiland, one of four players in double figures for Z-B, beat the first-quarter buzzer with a shot from just inside the timeline to give the Zee-Bees a 14-4 lead.

Z-B then scored the first 7 points of the second quarter, capitalizing off its half-court trap and free-throw efficiency.

The North Stars (6-7), who play the host Eagles at noon today, were also plagued by foul issues throughout the contest.

Mikes' second personal early in the second sent him to the pines for the remainder of the half, and starting guards Tony Neari and Chris Conrad were disqualified on fouls in the fourth quarter.

“We've got to be better defensively to stay out of foul trouble,” Poulin said. “That's on us.”

But North made inroads into its early deficit; Conrad hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter, Neari added another from beyond the arc as part of his 7-point frame and Quentin Payne had another pair from the floor.

Neari scored in the final four seconds to slice the one-time 17-point deficit to 31-21 entering the break.

North post Kyle Nelson, who had all 11 of his points after the intermission, had consecutive field goals early in the third.

When Payne converted a midair, two-handed putback midway through the third quarter, the Zee-Bees' lead had shrunk to 36-32.

But it would be as close as the North Stars would come the rest of the way.

In a defining moment early in the fourth, Poulin was cited for a technical foul after the front end of a North bonus was disallowed on a lane violation.

“Obviously, that helped us a lot,” said Z-B coach Don Kloth, whose squad never had less than a double-digit lead afterwards.

Dondre Osborne had 17 points to lead all scorers for Z-B.

Mikes' team-high 14 points was supplemented by Nelson, Conrad (11 points) and Neari (10) all finishing in double figures.

Payne added 8 points, but the North bench was shut out.

“We came out lazy,” Mikes said. “We just did on our thing (on offense). We have play harder than our opponent. It doesn't matter if it's (defending state champion) Simeon or anyone else.”