St. Charles E. snaps 7-game losing streak to St. Charles N.
First-year St. Charles East basketball coach Patrick Woods may be new to the rivalry with St. Charles North but he is quickly learning its significance.
"Coach (Rob) Klemm, our sophomore coach, talked before the game about us not beating North in the last five years," said Woods. "It's been too long. We kind of emphasized that point."
The Saints (2-2) snapped a 7-game losing streak at the hands of their cross-town foes with Saturday's 65-51 victory over the North Stars (1-3) in the fifth-place game of the 53rd annual St. Charles East/Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament.
St. Charles East's last previous win over St. Charles North (61-52) came on Feb. 20, 2007, in the consolation round of the now-defunct Upstate Eight Conference tournament.
Senior forward Johnny Hondlik, who scored 9 of his team-high 20 points in the fourth quarter, was thrilled to put an end to the North Stars' stranglehold in the series (STC North now leads 13-6).
"It's a great win first time in four years to beat North," said Hondlik. "I couldn't be happier right now. "We knew we had a good chance of beating them this year and things worked out," added Hondlik. "Coming out of here .500 is huge for us."
The two teams traded points throughout a third quarter that included 9 lead changes and 2 ties. After Kyle Swanson's 3-pointer off an inbounds play gave the North Stars a 38-37 lead with 22 seconds left, Michael Woods beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer of his own to put the Saints on top to stay, 40-38.
The Saints' sixth man contributed to the victory in many ways. In addition to his 5 points, Woods added 8 rebounds, 5 assists and numerous hustle plays.
"We've got enough guys who can score," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "We just needed someone to rebound, and I thought that he (Michael) really helped us."
"I'm just trying to do the little things as far as rebounding, getting some assists and knocking down open shots," said Michael Woods. "Coach just keeps preaching rebounding."
Junior forward Kendall Stephens and sophomore point guard Dominic Adduci added 16 points apiece and combined for 12 of the Saints' 23 second-half free throws. St. Charles East finished 24-of-34 from the free-throw line, compared to the North Stars' 11-of-14 effort.
"We didn't do well executing down the stretch," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin. "The (Saints') advantage at the foul line was hard to overcome. They had 20 more attempts at the line and it's because they were playing aggressively and getting us in situations where we fouled."
Junior Quinten Payne scored 20 points and 6-8 senior center Kyle Nelson added 14 for the North Stars, who shot just 28 percent from the field (17-of-61), including 3-of-16 in the final period.
"We missed an awful lot of shots," said Poulin. "We missed some good looks."
"On the (black) board, the key was post touches because we thought we had the advantage inside," added Poulin. "That's how we beat them last year three times.
"We didn't get him (Nelson) post touches and I'm not so sure that he did a good enough job getting deep enough post position. I'm not questioning Kyle's effort but I didn't like the spot where he was posting up on. It wasn't real advantageous when he caught it after we did actually throw it inside. We needed to start quarters inside-out and we didn't do that."
Charlie Fisher added 6 points and tenacious defense for the Saints, who will visit St. Charles North Jan. 7.
"Any time you have a town rivalry, it's important," said Patrick Woods. "North has dominated in the recent past so we wanted to kind of send a message that we're going to be tough."