St. Charles East blows by St. Charles North in 2nd half

Trailing St. Charles North by as many as 12 points late in the second quarter, St. Charles East was in need of an energy boost.

The Saints (3-1) regained their footing thanks to an 11-0 run and then shifted into overdrive with a powerful 40-16 second-half burst on the way to a 70-49 victory over the North Stars (2-2) during Saturday's third-place game of the 56th annual Ron Johnson/St. Charles East Thanksgiving Tournament.

Things didn't start too well for the Saints, who found themselves behind 19-9 after 1 quarter.

All-tournament senior guard Jake Ludwig ignited the North Stars early with 11 first-quarter points on 4 of 4 shooting from the field.

"I think we were still reeling a little bit from the loss to St. Joseph (Friday night)," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "I don't think we were ready to play tonight. Obviously, North was ready to play. Ludwig got hot early and when he gets hot, it's really tough to stop them."

A 3-pointer by Jarod Karom and pull-up jumper from Ludwig upped the North Stars' lead to 30-19 with 3:11 left in the first half before the Saints began their comeback.

First, Mick Vyzral (11 points, 11 rebounds) hit a runner in the lane. After a pair of free throws from Gentry, senior guard Jake Clodi (10 points, 3 steals) canned a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 30-26. Gentry hit 2 more free throws and a Cam Miller mid-range jumper tied the score at 30-30.

While Jack Callaghan (12 points, 7 rebounds) converted a 3-point play in the final seconds to give the North Stars a 33-30 halftime lead, the momentum was clearly on the Saints' side.

"I'm just glad that we were able to kind of hang on and once we got in our groove, we were in a good place," said Woods.

"They hit a lot of shots early," said Gentry. "We didn't shoot that well but we knew we would start making them."

The Saints opened the second half with another 11-0 tear, fueled by 6-8 senior center Jack Bronec (8 points, 8 rebounds).

Bronec followed his own miss to put the Saints in front 39-33, dove on the floor to secure a loose ball and hit a left-handed baby hook shot to up the lead to 41-33.

"That has been a point of emphasis for us all off-season," said Woods. "The kids feed off of him. They're really starting to gain more and more confidence in him with every game he plays. The better he gets, the better we get."

Although the North Stars trailed 45-39 after 3 quarters, they were unable to put a dent into the Saints' fourth-quarter lead that swelled to 63-44 after a 15-2 surge.

St. Charles North shot 20 percent from the field in the second half, something that has become a pattern during the opening week of the season.

"Offensively, we have to figure it out," admitted North Stars coach Tom Poulin. "That's four games in a row where we didn't get anything done in the second half.

"We really strayed away from the game plan defensively in the second half - too many mistakes."

Gentry, who joined Ludwig on the all-tournament team, poured in 14 of his game-high 24 points in the second half and added 6 assists.

"Everybody was playing their role to perfection," said Gentry, whose team was without the services of junior starting guard James McQuillan (concussion suffered against St. Joseph).

Ludwig, who took a nasty fall late in the second quarter, led the North Stars with 16 points but went scoreless in the second half.

"Jeremy Champine did a great job in the second half on Ludwig," said Woods. "We were able to cool him off."

"I don't know if that impacted him but after that he wasn't the same," Poulin said of Ludwig. "He competed hard and gave us everything he had."