St. Charles East hits 18 3s to beat West Chicago

St. Charles East basketball coach Patrick Woods expressed some concern about his team's inside play following Saturday night's game against West Chicago.

"We were really bad around the basket which is what we'll work on this week," said Woods. "I thought we missed a lot inside."

Woods' assessment was accurate as the Saints shot just 21 percent (4 of 19) from 2-point range.

However, the Saints (16-2, 8-1) more than made up the difference from beyond the arc as they blistered the nets for 18 3-point baskets during their 70-36 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over the Wildcats (5-11, 3-6) in St. Charles.

Senior guard Jake Asquini (15 points, 6 rebounds) began the barrage with three 3-pointers on his first 3 attempts as the Saints opened an early 9-2 lead.

Teammate Cole Gentry added a pair of 3-pointers of his own before Mick Vyzral (6 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) canned a 25-foot jumper during the Saints' 19-7 first-quarter surge.

"Jake got us started and it's kind of contagious," Gentry said of his team's outside shooting. "Once one guy hits one, we all kind of get rolling."

West Chicago battled back with a 10-2 run that included Peter Dolan's 3-point play and a 3-pointer from Jacob Wiegele to trim the deficit to 21-17 midway through the second quarter.

St. Charles East regrouped and closed out the quarter with a 10-1 tear that was triggered by Asquini's fourth 3-pointer of the first half.

The Saints led 31-18 at the intermission.

"They shot exceptionally well," Wildcats coach Bill Recchia said. "It's hard to beat a team that is going to shoot that well."

Gentry, who scored 10 of his game-high 21 points in the third quarter, drained a pair of 3-pointers as the Saints turned a 21-8 run into a commanding 52-26 advantage.

Jeremy Champine, Jake Clodi, James McQuillan, J.T. Ford and Mike Settle came off the bench to close out the Saints' 53 percent marksmanship (18 of 34) from beyond the 3-point arc.

"We just take them when we've got them," said Woods. "We have a lot of kids who can shoot and we work on it a lot in practice. We pull the shooting machine out and spend a lot of time shooting in practice."

Cam Miller, freshman Justin Hardy and Clodi each added 4 points, and junior Zach Hondlik had 6 rebounds - part of the Saints' 42-28 advantage on the boards.

"We wanted to get back to what we're good at and did it tonight," said Woods, whose team had its 13-game winning streak snapped in an overtime loss at St. Charles North on Jan. 17.

"It's sharing the ball, playing together and getting back to defending and rebounding," added the coach. "We did a good job defensively. That's what we're about if we want to win."

"A lot of it was getting back to basics - help-side defense and rebounding," said Gentry, who added 5 assists, 4 rebounds and 3 steals along with five 3-pointers. "It was a tough week but it was good for us."

Quinn Ricci led the Wildcats with 10 points.

"They do such a nice job penetrating and kicking," Recchia said of the Saints. "It's six of one and half-dozen of the other. You have to defend both ways.

"When a team shoots like that, my hat's off to them. We didn't all of a sudden become a basketball team that is 34 points worse than St. Charles East. They played an exceptional ballgame."