St. Charles North stays hot, beats Batavia
Lest St. Charles North feel too good about itself after knocking off No. 1 Elgin Thursday night, junior Kyle Swanson brought the team back to earth before Friday's game at Batavia courtesy of Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.
"Once you start feeling good about yourselves that's when you get knocked on your (behind)," said teammate Kyle Nelson, relaying Thibodeau's advice that Swanson told the team. "That's true. Maybe that kind of stuck in our minds a little during the game."
St. Charles North capped off its best week in recent memory, riding 23 points from Nelson and 17 more from Quinten Payne for their first win at Batavia, 61-48.
With victories over Larkin, Elgin and now Batavia this week, the North Stars (10-12, 6-2) have moved ahead of the Maroons (5-2) in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division and into a tie with Geneva (5-1) for first (a game behind in the loss column).
How have the North Stars, an up-and-down team much of the past two years, done it? Coach Tom Poulin, who didn't have a voice left after Thursday's win, gave much of the credit to the 6-foot-8 senior Nelson.
A year ago in this same matchup, Nelson watched his good friend and counterpart at Batavia Cole Gardner go off for career highs of 30 points and 17 rebounds. While Gardner was tough again with 22 points, Nelson's 23 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocked shots played a big part in getting Gardner in early foul trouble and giving the North Stars a first-quarter lead they never relinquished.
"The eye test this week for Kyle has been impressive when I look at him," Poulin said. "He's just playing quicker, stronger, faster than he has before and that's made us much better. He's the difference. We go from good to very good when Kyle is playing with spirit."
Nelson started the week with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 3 blocks against Larkin and followed with 16 points plus a game-saving block at Elgin. He's enjoyed the team's turnaround as much as anyone.
"It feels good to finish off this week with a win, very satisfying," Nelson said. "I think we should have been closer to this the whole season but we haven't been able to close out games. We made our free throws down the stretch and that's why we won this week. Perfect time to find it, middle of the season, carry it onto the tournament and we'll be good."
Nelson scored 13 of his points in the opening half, starting with a spin move down low for the North Stars' first basket and following with a 3-point play on a feed from Payne that drew Gardner's first foul.
Gardner's second foul came less than a minute later, and Batavia (4-13, 1-7) was forced to play without its leading scorer from the 5:31 mark of the first quarter until 4:11 remained in the second quarter. By that time the North Stars had gone from down 6-5 to up 23-17. They led 30-21 at halftime on Michael Schroeder's 3 in the final seconds.
"You want to go at Gardner and see if you are lucky enough to get him off the floor for any stretch especially in the first half," Poulin said. "We felt we might be able to create some sort of a lead and that was the case."
The North Stars opened their biggest lead at 46-31 when Payne scored the final 6 points of the third quarter.
The closest Batavia came in the fourth quarter was 50-42 when Jake Pollack pulled up for a 3 at the top of the key. Payne quickly answered with a hard drive to the rim to restore a double-digit lead.
"This was a turning point," Poulin said. "This was a week we could turn a corner or make the hill much more steep. I told the guys I've been coaching 12 years, three different sports and I've never been more proud. I think the kids believe in each other even more and believe in our system more and they have bought into defending."
Batavia, meanwhile, lost its eighth straight game. Its bad luck continued with Luke Horton sitting out Friday with an ankle injury suffered in the final 20 minutes of Thursday's practice.
The Bulldogs also learned they will be without point guard Mike Rueffer for at least two more weeks. They did handle the ball better than in Tuesday's loss at St. Charles East, committing 11 turnovers Friday.
"We made some mistakes but at the same time we weren't on our heels," Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. "These were mistakes going in the right direction."
Tucker Knox took Horton's place and led the team with 8 rebounds while Pollack stepped up with 15 points and 5 rebounds.
"We just have to pull together as a team and we'll be fine," Pollack said. "We haven't been doing that well lately. I kept my head as point guard and my teammates really jelled with me."