St. Charles North tops Bartlett to reach Jacobs title game
The St. Charles North boys basketball team is in a familiar position.
It just hopes for a different result.
The North Stars advanced Wednesday night to the championship game of the Jacobs Holiday Classic for the third consecutive season - and got a little revenge - by beating Bartlett, 70-61, in Algonquin.
"It's a big deal to us," North coach Tom Poulin said. "These guys want to prove that they can push the program ahead and take it the next step, not just getting to the championship, but coming through and getting a 'W' in the championship."
STC North (9-5) will play Barrington at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the title game. The North Stars lost to Jacobs in the championship game each of the last two seasons.
"We were .500 coming in (to the tournament) and we were better than a .500 ballclub," said North senior Beau Blakeley. "We wanted to show people that."
The North Stars, who lost to Bartlett by 14 points less than two weeks ago, started quickly against the Hawks, scoring the first six points. They never trailed and the game was never tied after 0-0. Blakeley's 3-pointer from the right corner with 4 seconds left in the first quarter gave North an 18-9 lead.
Bartlett (8-4), which plays Zion-Benton at 6 p.m. Saturday in the third-place game, cut the deficit to 5, 34-29, entering halftime and seemed to have some momentum. The Hawks cut it to 3, 36-33, with 6:25 left in the third quarter after a Luke Labedzki bucket.
That would be as close as the Hawks would get as North extended its lead with an 8-0 run and scored 16 of the next 19 points to take a 52-36 lead into the fourth quarter.
"We had no heart. We had no energy," Hawks coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "We played selfish. St. Charles North was the exact opposite."
Bartlett scored 8 points in a minute to get within 6, 64-58, but the North Stars hit 6 of 8 free throws in the final 46 seconds.
"We wanted to see them again. We knew this matchup was possible," Blakeley said. "We wanted to prove that we're better than what we showed the first time."
Josh Mikes had 16 points, 10 in the second half, and 6 rebounds for North, which shot 52 percent (27 for 52). David Johnson finished with 14 points and Kyle Nelson added 9 points and 9 rebounds.
Larry Whitaker led the Hawks with 15 points and 6 rebounds. Labedzki had 14 points. Mike Banks added 10.