St. Charles North goes inside on Streamwood

The St. Charles North boys basketball team knew it could get the ball inside Friday night.

With Streamwood missing its tallest player, 6-foot-9 Zach Harris, the North Stars took advantage.

The North Stars had 46 points in the paint en route to a 68-45 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over the Sabres in Streamwood.

"You have to try to expose it," North coach Tom Poulin said. "We have had opportunities in the past and we haven't gotten (Kyle Nelson) the touches he deserves. That was in the game plan. It's obvious that's what you have to do against a team without Harris."

Nelson, a 6-8 senior, scored 21 points, 20 coming in the paint. Quinten Payne, who is 6-4, added 10 points in the paint, including two breakaway dunks. The junior finished with 19 points, hitting three of the North Stars' five 3-pointers.

"We have three guys who can post up," Nelson said. "We knew we would have the advantage down low with three of our guys taller than their tallest player."

Streamwood had two starters standing 6-3, Joel Lightbourne and Dalton Lundeen. The Sabres did what they could to keep Nelson, who also grabbed 7 rebounds, away from the basket. Sabres coach Tim Jones was proud of the effort down low defensively despite Nelson's scoring output.

"It's hard when you don't have a big kid to stop Nelson," Jones said. "I thought for the most part we did a decent job. We're just not physically or mentally tough enough yet."

The North Stars (3-6, 2-3), who snapped a three-game losing streak, jumped out to a 12-3 lead with all the points coming in the paint. Payne and Alec Goetz then hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions as North took a 18-6 lead after the first quarter. Streamwood was just 1-for-12 in the quarter.

"(Defense) is what we've been working on all week," Payne said. "Our guards did a great job keeping guys in front of them.

"We kept guys out of the middle. We rotated real well. It was a great team defensive game."

Streamwood (2-8, 0-3) was able to cut North's lead to single digits three times in the second quarter, but the North Stars quickly made sure the Sabres would not rally. The lead was up to 15 midway through the quarter and was 20, 38-18, at halftime.

Michael Schroeder and Goetz each finished with 7 points for the North Stars, who outrebounded Streamwood 34-23.

Julius Evans led the Sabres, who lost their fifth straight game, with 10 points. Brent Kiesel and Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle each added 8.