St. Charles N. outlasts Batavia
The list of numbers that St. Charles North senior Kyle Nelson didn’t like in the North Stars’ Upstate Eight Conference River Division opener Friday against Batavia went on and on.
There was 15-15 — the halftime score. Or 6 of 15 and 10 of 20 — the free-throw shooting for Batavia and St. Charles North, respectively.
How about 37.5 percent? That’s what the North Stars shot from the field. It actually was better than Batavia’s 30.4 percent — or 22.8 if you take out Cole Gardner’s line.
No, there weren’t many pretty offensive numbers for either team at St. Charles North. Luckily for Nelson and his North Star teammates there was at least one they could smile about, the 41-36 final score that allowed them to get their conference season started on the right foot.
“Our goal is to win one game at a time,” Nelson said. “It was a game in the 30s, it had to be boring for you guys to watch, but whatever gets us another win is all we care about.”
St. Charles North (2-3) got the victory with a 14-4 run to end the game after Batavia (1-3) had taken its largest lead of the night 32-27 with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left.
After Nelson scored inside on an assist from Quinten Payne, junior guard Tony Neari drew a charge. Neari followed with a jumper to make it a 1-point game, then a quick steal which he fed to Nelson flying down the lane for a lay-in and a sudden 6-point burst that put the North Stars ahead 33-32 with 3:22 remaining.
“Basically their guard wasn’t paying attention, and I just took it,” Neari said of his steal. “It’s a big deal to us. Each win brings us more together.”
Nelson, who scored all 14 of his game-high points in the second half, converted another inside basket. Batavia’s leading scorer Gardner fouled out trying for a rebound, but Mike Rueffer’s 3-pointer kept the Bulldogs alive, trailing 36-35 with 1:46 left.
Michael Schroeder’s free throw put the North Stars ahead 37-35. After a timeout Batavia misfired on a tough fadeaway 17-foot baseline jumper with 50 seconds left.
The Bulldogs had one last chance trailing 39-36 when Nelson missed a pair throws with 13.9 seconds to go. Even though the Bulldogs had four players in the lane for the rebound and St. Charles North none, Nelson hustled after his own miss and grabbed his 12th rebound of the game to deny Batavia a shot at a game-tying 3. Payne’s 2 free throws with 8 seconds left iced the game.
“The missed free throw took a lot of air out of us,” Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. “You’ve got to seal kids out.”
Batavia played without Zach Strittmatter who dressed but whose right ankle is still “very tender” according to Roberts. Gardner drew the second foul on Nelson with 5:03 left in the first quarter forcing the North Stars’ 6-foot-8 senior to the bench for the rest of the first half.
“That was a bummer,” Nelson said. “I love playing against Cole, he’s a friend of mine. But I had to go out and everyone stepped up. Justin Stanko and Ryan Thomas stepped up big and filled my shoes and did a good job boxing out and playing defense.”
Stanko scored 6 points in the first half while Gardner had 11 of Batavia’s 15. But in the second half the Bulldogs struggled to get the ball to their star, throwing it away on a couple possessions and settling for jumpers on many others.
“I don’t think we did a very good job of entering the ball at the right angles,” Roberts said. “Sometimes telegraphing the passes. We’ll get better at it.
“We just did not shoot the ball well as a group. Defensively I thought we made them work hard with a few exceptions.”
St. Charles North took a 24-23 lead into the fourth quarter. In a rare burst of big plays, Gardner’s stickback put the Bulldogs up, Payne answered with a thunderous 1-hand dunk on a drive in traffic, and Luke Horton scored inside for a 27-26 Batavia lead and the third lead change in less than a minute.
The Bulldogs gradually extended their advantage to 32-27 but caught a bad break when Gardner had to leave with four fouls on a play it looked like a teammate could have been whistled instead.
“They are not the same team when he’s off the floor,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “We didn’t shoot well. We took a lot of contested shots in the first half.
“We wanted to force our tempo and play at a little bit faster speed. They dictated the tempo of the game. It might not have been pleasing to the crowd the style of basketball but we need to take some confidence that even if a team dictates the tempo of the game we can still win.”
Payne and Rueffer also reached double figures with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Both teams will hit the road Saturday in opposite directions. While the Bulldogs travel to Quincy, St. Charles North heads to UIC for to play Crane at the CPS/Suburban Basketball Showdown. Their originally scheduled game against York will be played Feb. 18.
“It will be a good experience for our guys,” Poulin said. “We’ll get better from it.”