Stephens injured in St. Charles East win
A key aspect of St. Charles East's debut Tuesday at Glenbard West's 10th annual Holiday Classic maybe topping its 69-68 win over Addison Trail occurred with 28.2 seconds left in the first quarter.
Saints star Kendall Stephens rose for a 3-point shot and upon landing suffered an injury to his left leg. The Purdue recruit remained in Biester Gymnasium but soon sported crutches and ice wrapped around his left ankle.
After the game Stephens who scored 10 points with a block and a steal in a first quarter St. Charles East (6-3) led 23-9 said he came down on another player's leg. Saints coach Patrick Woods called Stephens' availability "day to day."
"Right now there's not a ton of swelling, but that doesn't mean anything," Woods said. "It could be a high-ankle sprain, who knows. We'll give it a day, get with our trainer and we'll see tomorrow."
Without Stephens on the floor, Addison Trail (5-6) caught up and twice took fourth-quarter leads.
"Kendall brings a lot of intensity to our team, and when he went down we just took awhile to get back to that intensity," said Saints sophomore guard Dom Adduci, who scored a game-high 23 points, including his team's last 2 points, on free throws with 17.6 seconds to play. "We need to realize that even though Kendall's down we need to bring it more intense."
Rallying from a 53-40 deficit after three quarters, Addison Trail took its first lead, 63-62, on a Tyler Little 3 with 3:05 to play. St. Charles East's Mike Woods (no relation to Patrick) made 2 free throws but Addison Trail's Ricky Diaz answered for a 65-64 Blazers edge with 1:23 left.
Johnny Hondlik's three-point play reclaimed a Saints 67-65 lead. Adduci's last two free throws withstood a 3 by Varinder Kalsi, his fourth of the quarter and sixth of the game for a team-high 21 points.
St. Charles East missed two free throws with 4.3 seconds left, but Addison Trail missed a 20-foot runner at the horn.
"I told our guys, I don't take anything away from our offensive performance," said Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons. "We made shots when we had to, but when we needed to get stops we couldn't do it."