Big 2nd half lifts St. Charles North to win
St. Charles North girls basketball coach Sean Masoncup should patent and bottle Tuesday night's halftime speech.
Whatever the North Stars' boss said to his troops at intermission they certainly heeded his words of wisdom.
With 15 first-half turnovers, St. Charles North trailed Resurrection 20-18 at the end of the first half.
The inspired North Stars outscored the Bandits 38-19 in the second half and posted a 56-39 win in third round action of the 33rd Annual Charger Classic hosted by Dundee-Crown.
St. Charles North (9-3) will take on Hononegah for fifth place Wednesday at 5 p.m.
"I wasn't happy with the way we played in the first half," said Masoncup. "We played our worst half of the season and were down only 2 against a very good Resurrection team. I think we had a hangover from (Monday) night's tough loss to New Trier. We took care of the ball much better and our ball movement was much better in the second half."
The North Stars, who committed only 5 turnovers in the second half, immediately seized control of the game to start the third quarter.
Connecting on its first 5 shots of the half, St. Charles North scored the first 11 points. Making 3 inside baskets, Claire Jakaitas scored 7 points along with a 3-pointer by Samantha Sample and the North Stars led 29-20 with 5:25 left in the third quarter.
Resurrection's first points of the quarter came on 2 free throws from Jessica Pawula to make the score 29-22 with 5:10 remaining in the quarter.
Draining 11-of-15 shots in the third quarter for 73 percent, St. Charles North outscored Resurrection 22-7 and led by 13, 40-27, after 24 minutes of play.
St. Charles North's biggest advantage of the game was 49-29 after a layup by Morgan Rosencrants with 3:27 left in the game.
Jakaitas, with 15 points in the second half, led the North Stars with 19. The senior center also grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out 3 assists.
"Coach (Masoncup) really got after us at halftime," said Jakaitas. "We had better ball movement in the second half and I got the ball in great position to score."
Rosencrants added 12 points for the Stars, who made 17-of-25 shots from the floor in the second half for 68 percent.