St. Charles East grinds out win over St. Charles North
For all the attention Cole Gentry gets for his offensive exploits and playmaking ability, it was the senior's work on the other end that played a big role in St. Charles East's 62-55 victory over St. Charles North Wednesday night in the Class 4A Geneva regional semifinals.
Guarding his longtime friend and rival Jake Ludwig one last time, Gentry held Ludwig to 9 points on 7 shot attempts.
"We wanted to deny his touches as much as we could," Gentry said. "The key was when he had the ball I had to stay in a stance. He's really good at changing speeds, changing levels.
"It's fun to play them. I love watching them play when they are not playing us. I would like to congratulate them on their careers but it's good to beat them."
The win gave St. Charles East (24-3) the second most in school history and advances the Saints into Friday's championship game against host Geneva (26-3). The teams split their regular season meetings, Geneva winning on its home court.
"We avenged one of our three losses tonight and we get a chance to avenge a second Friday," said Saints coach Patrick Woods, whose team won with third third-lowest output of the season.
Gentry and Evan DiLeonardi played a little role reversal. The team's defensive stopper, DiLeonardi's offense stood out Wednesday.
Picking its poison, St. Charles North (18-9) chose to leave DiLeonardi open only to watch the junior make all five of his 3-point attempts to lead the Saints with 17 points. His teammates made just 4 of 18 3s.
"He stepped up in a big moment and made shots," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "You have to credit him. He made us pay for helping off."
Woods said the Geneva loss was a "wake-up call" for DiLeonardi, who the Vikings sagged off. Ever since then Woods has watched DiLeonardi stay after practice putting in countless hours on his shot.
"I've been working on it a lot because I knew when playoffs came teams would let me shoot more," DiLeonardi said. "I want to force teams to guard me. It will help the team out in the long run."
The North Stars led just once, 2-0, when Ludwig opened the scoring with free throws. Both teams started slow until Gentry and DiLeonardi closed the first quarter with 3s for a 14-10 lead.
The scoring didn't pick up much in the second quarter, the Saints leading 26-20 at halftime despite making just 9 of 28 shots in the half. Gentry only had 3 points at the break before starting the third quarter with a floater.
The Saints led throughout the second half, a margin that fluctuated between 5 and 10 points.
After Gentry's 3 put the Saints up 48-38 early in the fourth, John Davern's 2 free throws and a bucket from Jack Callaghan brought the North Stars within 48-42 with 6:28 left.
The North Stars had two chances to get closer. A DiLeonardi steal and then a missed front end of a 1-and-1 spelled two empty possessions, then the Saints gave themselves a cushion on Jake Asquini's first 3 of the night, a DiLeonardi basket, and DiLeonardi's assist to James McQuillan for a corner 3 and a 56-44 lead with 2:54 remaining.
"They outplayed us tonight," Poulin said. "They executed better in the half court and they turned the ball over less."
Gentry added 12 points and 6 assists. Asquini made 7 of 8 free throws to finish with 12 points.
Playing with a bad shoulder, sixth man Cam Miller had 5 points and 5 rebounds.
"Cam is a warrior," Woods said. "He's doing all the dirty things, rebounding, screening, the stuff that usually doesn't get you in the paper."
Senior Jack Callaghan led both teams with 23 points and 10 rebounds.
Sophomore Griffin Hammer gave the North Stars a spark with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
"I saw a lot of open lanes," Hammer said. "I got a lot of opportunities and took them when they were there."
After starting 2-4, Poulin said he was proud of what the North Stars did to finish 18-9.
"We thought we were going to win the game but credit to them," Ludwig said. "Unfortunately it didn't go our way tonight."