St. Charles N. stands tall against Bartlett

With underclass centers and forwards peaking at 6-foot, the Bartlett girls basketball team had a game-opening dilemma going up against St. Charles North and 6-foot-4 center Kelsey Smith.

Falling behind early and watching Smith tally 15 points scoring consistently throughout all four quarters while pulling down 12 boards proved too much for Bartlett to overcome. The North Stars won 58-40 in Upstate Eight Conference action at Bartlett.

St. Charles North got on top early, capitalizing on 14 first-half turnovers from Bartlett for 15 points, while the Hawks recorded just 9 points off of the North Stars' 10 turnovers.

The North Stars improved to 7-2 overall. Their losses are to the No. 3-ranked team in the state and the No. 4-ranked team in the nation, and they remain unbeaten at 3-0 in UEC play.

"I am very pleased with the fact that we were able to pull off of our bench for some quality contributions," said St. Charles North coach Katie Sauber.

Bartlett nabbed an early 10-7 lead behind a bucket, a pair of free throws and matching shots from long distance off the hands of Becca Cronin and Alexa Tovella. St. Charles North posted a 10-0 run to go up 20-12.

"It's getting to that point in the season where we need to start minimizing other team's runs," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "We need to play better. We're just not consistent enough."

But with 5 steals from Anna Conrad and a trio from Nika Sircher in the first half alone, there was little the Hawks could do.

A 21-19 rebounding edge helped Bartlett manage to stay within 32-23 at the half despite a second St. Charles North run.

"Rebounding is something we've been talking about in practice, so it's nice to see the girls put what we've talked about into action," Sarna said.

Another 10-0 run in the third quarter led by Sircher put the North Stars safely ahead.

Sophomore guard Kiley Hackbarth posted the game-high 16 points zipping in and out of the Bartlett defense while converting on 3 from behind the arc.

Meanwhile, Bartlett (2-8) struggled to score, shooting just 31 percent from the field, connecting on 15 of 48 attempts.

"We played well against a nice team in Bartlett," Sauber said. "The second half was much better than the first for us. We moved the ball well, and had nice looks from every aspect.

"We knew what we needed to work on, and I saw a lot of that put into play."

The Hawks' Jacki Gulczynski shot 50 percent from the field and from the free-throw line to lead the Bartlett offense with 12 points. Gulczynski and Christina Carlson each recorded 6 rebounds.

Sam Salinas scored 6 of Bartlett's 7 third-quarter points, and Nicole Beck came off the bench to add 4 points and 5 rebounds.

"Our defense did a nice job," Sarna said. "We will just keep plugging away. We'll be back."

Scoring 10 points off the bench, Jenna Bell added 4 points to the North Stars' offensive attack.