Mikes, St. Charles North slam Elgin to complete 2-0 weekend

St. Charles North junior Josh Mikes put on the type of finishing kick Saturday night his coach has been waiting for, and one the opposing coach wants his own team to duplicate.

Mikes scored 12 of his game-high 21 points in the final eight minutes, helping the North Stars break open a tight game and defeat Elgin 55-39.

Mikes put an exclamation point on his night with his second dunk of the game with a minute left. Just before that, twice he took the ball at the free-throw line, drove, scored and was fouled.

"The last four minutes he really smelled blood," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "He took over and attacked the rim. We need one of our players to step up and be one of those go-to guys."

St. Charles North (4-2, 2-0) won a pair of Upstate Eight games this weekend. Coach Tom Poulin liked the way his team got the ball inside in the second half, a night after they took made just 3 of 19 3-pointers against Streamwood. Against Elgin, the North Stars again hit three 3-pointers but took just seven.

"They played a little more like the kids I know," Poulin said.

Elgin (2-4, 0-2) stayed close throughout the first half, tying the game at 21 on Jordan Dean's 3-pointer. Kyle Nelson's putback basket gave the North Stars a 23-21 halftime lead.

Poulin emphasized once again at halftime to get the ball to the post. The strategy worked, with both Nelson (13 points, 10 rebounds) and Mikes keying a 15-8 third quarter and 17-10 fourth quarter.

Nelson, a sophomore, continued his development after a 14-point, 7-rebound game the night before. The North Stars also got a lift from Scott Hedges off the bench with 6 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists.

All the high percentage looks helped St. Charles North make 12 of 19 field goal attempts in the second half to finish at over 50 percent (18 for 34) for the game.

"We talked at the half of getting a post touch on every possession," Mikes said. "We really wanted to focus on getting the ball down low."

Mikes' first dunk came on a sweet feed from Chris Conrad early in the third quarter. Mikes finished in traffic, surprising even himself.

"I wasn't thinking about dunking but I was up there so I just thought I'd dunk it and have a little fun," Mikes said.

Leading 38-29 after three quarters, Mikes scored the North Stars' first 11 points of the fourth quarter.

"We really started to pick it up in the second half of this game," Mikes said. "That was a lot of fun to close it out that way."

Elgin, coming off an emotional loss to Larkin the night before, only turned the ball 11 times, but Sitter wasn't always happy with the shots the Maroons settled for against St. Charles North's zone.

"I don't think we attacked the zone as well as we could, we weren't as aggressive as we could be," Sitter said. "I was worried about the energy we'd have."

Dennis Moore and Dean led the Maroons with 13 and 12 points, respectively.