Night full of firsts for St. Charles North in regional
One milestone evidently wasn't enough for St. Charles North senior Nick Neari.
St. Charles North's 71-59 win over Larkin Tuesday night in the Class 4A DeKalb regional semifinals gave the North Stars their first 20-win season. The top-seeded North Stars will go for No. 21 Friday night in the championship game against the winner of Wednesday night's battle between No. 2 seed South Elgin and No. 3 DeKalb.
Neari, a senior guard who leads the North Stars in scoring at 14 points a game, doubled that Tuesday with a career-high 30 points. He hit 11 of 17 shots from the field and added 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 5 steals.
"Nick does a real good job, if they are going to play up in your shirt, you go right by them," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "We didn't call an offensive play or set there for awhile other than a high ball screen and let Nick decide what to do with it from there."
The North Stars (20-8) needed Neari's career night. Fifth-seed Larkin (8-20) fresh off an upset over No. 4 St. Charles East Monday, jumped to a 13-5 lead.
St. Charles North lost senior guard Jonathan DeMoss just 2 minutes, 43 seconds into the game when he bruised his knee. DeMoss didn't return, the second straight game he's played just a couple minutes in the first quarter and missed the remainder.
Poulin said DeMoss was cleared to return in the second half and will be back Friday night.
"Jon is one of our key players, he does everything for us," Neari said. "Once he's out it's up to the rest of the team to pick up his slack."
That's just what Neari did, hitting 2 jumpers and then driving for a layup, his 6 straight points tying the game at 13. Neari found Zach Hirsch open for the second of his four 3-pointers and an 18-16 lead after the first quarter.
The North Stars extended their lead in the second, holding Larkin scoreless for a 3:37 stretch to go up 34-25 at halftime. Sophomore Josh Mikes capped the half with a steal and a banked in 18-footer at the buzzer.
Mikes continued his damage in the second half, scoring 13 of his 19 points. Larkin got as close as 43-37 on Drew Simonini's 3-pointer with 4:21 left in the third quarter, but by the time the fourth quarter began, the North Stars were up 54-42.
The Royals never got closer in the fourth quarter as the effects of Monday night's overtime win started to take their toll.
"Back-to-back games, we felt like we could handle it, but it caught up with us," Larkin senior Brandon Cooks said. "We had the lead but let it slide. We didn't have as much intensity as yesterday."
Hirsch joined Neari and Mikes in double figures, scoring all 12 of his points on 3-pointers. The North Stars shot 55.6 percent from the field to make up for their 22 turnovers.
"You've got to be on your 'A' game to knock them off," Larkin coach Larry Hight said. "Neari was a little too much for us. He's hard to guard. He was our focal point, we need help on him. They are not the No. 1 seed for nothing."
Simonini led the Royals with 13 points, and Cooks and Terell John both scored 11.
"I'm proud of the seniors that have been with me for two years, Brandon, Jeff (Saurbaugh) and Terrell," Hight said. "We've improved a lot this year and I'm proud of that. We pulled an upset off yesterday and if you are going to end the season and you don't have a lot of wins, you want to end it getting a regional upset."
On Friday, the North Stars will either get a chance to avenge a 70-64 loss to South Elgin Feb. 20, or try to beat DeKalb on the Barbs' home court.
"Coach has been talking about how we're a tournament team and we've been looking to come in the state tournament the last five games," Mikes said. "We were ready for the tournament. We were really antsy to get the tournament started."