Freshman shoots St. Charles North past Batavia

Alyssa Hughes' return entrance in the fourth quarter could not have come at a more opportune time for the St. Charles North girls basketball game.

Only a freshman, Hughes delivered the biggest field goal of the North Stars' 58-54 victory over Batavia Tuesday evening in DuKane Conference action.

Hughes found nothing but net on her second 3-pointer of the game with 90 seconds remaining to break the final tie of a back-and-forth fourth quarter.

Players from each team would trade free throws in the final half-minute, but Hughes' split trip at the line was the final scoring of the North Stars' 4-point victory in Batavia.

"I am used to pressure shots," Hughes said. "I shoot in practice all the time thinking 'This is for the game.' This time I made it."

With the regular season rapidly winding down, St. Charles North improved to 18-11, 8-5 while knocking Batavia to 10-16, 7-6.

Erin Golden, one of two Batavia seniors honored before the game, scored 10 second-quarter points to personally eradicate an early St. Charles North advantage in giving the Bulldogs a 27-24 lead at halftime.

"My teammates were getting me great looks," said Golden.

Batavia had all the momentum to start the third quarter after Claire Nazos' consecutive 3-pointers from seemingly out of bounds helped the Bulldogs to a 37-30 advantage.

But St. Charles North would respond behind the superlative guard play of Launi Chantaboury and Talia Pellegrini.

The former would lead all players with 25 points; the latter was equally superb with 16 points.

Chantaboury drained four 3-pointers, and the senior began the fourth quarter with a flourish.

With the North Stars trailing by one, Chantaboury had a pair of steals and equal number of assists and a layup in less than 85 seconds to give St. Charles North a 5-point lead.

"We always want to be the first team to punch to start the fourth quarter," Chantaboury said. "We wanted to come out strong."

There was still an eternity to play, however.

Batavia would respond with a 9-0 burst as Tessa Towers' three inside scores augmented a Golden 3-pointer.

"The Batavia guards had about a six-inch window to get Towers the ball," St. Charles North coach Mike Tomczak said.

Both Golden and Towers finished with 17 points for Batavia.

"The passes were pretty great," Towers said. "I just went up there and scored."

But the North Stars' Chanthaboury and Tatum Settelmyer hit 3-pointers to give their team a 52-50 lead.

Alyssa Sarik tied the game for the final time, 52-52, for Batavia with 1:52 to play to set up Hughes' heroics.

"It was an exciting game," Tomczak said.