St. Charles North rallies from 14 down, beats Saints
Trailing St. Charles East 30-22 at halftime, St. Charles North girls basketball coach Mike Tomczak felt somewhat fortunate.
“We were lucky to be down by 8,” said Tomczak, whose team committed more first-half turnovers (9) than baskets (8). “We could have easily been down by 20. When you only get 7 points from your starters in the first half – that’s not good.”
Things changed dramatically for the North Stars in the second half.
Led by 6-foot-1 senior guard/forward Reagan Sipla, the North Stars (21-3, 9-2) closed out the last 3 minutes of the third quarter on a 13-0 run – all part of their 20-5 surge that turned a 35-29 deficit into a 42-35 advantage heading into the final quarter.
When sophomore Riley Barber converted a layup off an inbounds feed from senior guard Laney Stark, the North Stars’ unanswered offensive tear reached 17 and resulted in a 46-35 lead with 6:55 remaining.
Sipla, who scored 14 third-quarter points, tallied 21 of her game-high 23 points in the second half during the North Stars’ 61-48 come-from-behind triumph over the Saints (17-8, 6-5) Friday night at St. Charles North.
“We were motivated to win that game and we knew we had to pick it up on multiple levels,” Sipla said of her team’s frustration level at halftime. “As a team, we all came together and really pushed for it.”
Sipla, who connected on 8 of her 10 field-goal attempts in the second half, personally realized she had to play much better after a 2-point opening half.
“I knew we all wanted to win that game, so I needed to step up and do what I’m supposed to do,” said Sipla, who opened the third quarter with an aggressive driving layup before draining a 3-pointer from the top of the key and adding a pair of putback buckets.
“I think our inside-outside game opened up a lot of things,” she added. “We finished inside, we scored outside. We were getting the right looks with the right people.”
It didn’t take long for Tomczak to see his team’s improved defensive effort materialize in the second half.
“We had more deflections in the first three minutes of the third quarter than we did in the entire first half,” said the coach. “You couple that defense with a player like Reagan (Sipla) getting hot and you see what happened. We were crashing the glass. We were finishing possessions.”
Tomczak credited reserves Lelanie Posada, Elle Fuhr, and Hannah Ganser for giving the North Stars a chance for their second-half rally.
“The lift they gave us in the first half to keep things close was huge,” said Tomczak, whose team received 15 first-half points from Posada, Fuhr, and Ganser.
St. Charles East, which led 16-8 after one quarter, built a pair of 14-point leads – the last at 28-14 with 3:22 left in the first half before the second-half struggles.
“We’ve been trying to string together four quarters,” said Saints coach Katie Claussner. “There are quarters where we show greatness, and I think the first two quarters – that was it. We’ve just got to have that mentality and continue it through the whole game. We’re hoping we find it because regionals start in two weeks.”
Sophomore Addie Schilb came off the bench to lead the Saints with 16 points, while Sydney Axelsen added 9.