Wrap: SCN tops Lake Park; Elgin notches 1st win
There are quality wins, and there are impressive wins.
St. Charles North's girls basketball team accomplished both during its 66-50 home triumph over Upstate Eight Conference foe Lake Park on Saturday afternoon.
Not only did the North Stars (19-4) rely on a total team effort to gradually pull away from the Lancers (16-7, 6-2), they improved their conference record to 9-0 and helped set up a late-season showdown with co-leader Waubonsie Valley on Friday night in Aurora.
"This (win) puts us in a good position for Friday night," said North Stars coach Katie Sauber. "We have a lot of work to do obviously. Waubonsie is pretty solid, but it puts us in a nice spot."
Jumping out to a 15-4 start after the first six minutes left the North Stars in a nice spot against the Lancers.
Junior center Kelsey Smith, who led the North Stars with 27 points and 11 rebounds, scored 7 of her 9 first-quarter points during her team's early surge.
With guards Kiley Hackbarth, Anna Conrad and Nika Sircher looking to push the ball downcourt, the North Stars got quality looks at the basket.
"That's something we want to use to our advantage whenever we can," said Smith, who finished 11 of 20 from the field. "We work on our transition game pretty much every day."
The North Stars also came up with an interesting strategy while trying to defend Lake Park junior forward Samantha Arnold.
Despite giving up 10 inches to the 6-4 Arnold, Sircher took on the defensive assignment against the Lancers' leading scorer.
"We tried Kelsey on her last year (in a loss) and I didn't want to pull Kelsey away from the basket too much because of her rebounding," Sauber said. "We knew we were going to play extremely tight on Sam and that she was going to work really hard to get her points.
"And we knew if Nika was on her (Arnold) was going to try and post her up -- which was fine with us because when she turned to the middle, Kelsey was going to be there."
While Arnold poured in a game-high 29 points, 15 of those points in the fourth quarter after the North Stars had already built a 48-35 cushion.
"There was a huge height difference, but I was excited to play," Sircher said of the challenge. "I told coach Sauber before our game with Naperville North (Tuesday), 'I want to play her and I promise you I'll do the best that I can.'
"My nose is probably broken (from an inadvertent elbow) but that's OK."
St. Charles North, which led 32-23 at halftime, saw its lead trimmed to 7 late in the third quarter before junior Alex Messacar came off the bench to nail back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 53 seconds of the period.
"Those two 3s came at the best time -- nice job on her part," Sauber said. "Alex knows her job is to shoot and she did a good job of that tonight."
Sarah Drozdowski scored all 13 of her points in the first half for the Lancers.
"Today was St. Charles' day," said Lancers coach Lisa Smith. "I thought every player on their team had an impact, and unfortunately, not every player on our team had an impact.
"When you looked at the end of the first half, we only had two players score -- which is very unusual for us. I thought that hurt."
Girls Basketball
Elgin 39, East Aurora 25: The Maroons (1-21, 1-7) won their first game of the season, downing East Aurora in Upstate Eight Conference action. Seniors Kiersten Swartz and Giselle Bruskewitz each led the Maroons with 10 points. Caris Alan also contributed to the victory posting 9 points for the Maroons.
Luther South 47, Westminster Christian 41: In the Private School League Tournament Hannah Graves made a 3-point shot at the buzzer to help lead the Warriors into overtime. In overtime the Warriors were outscored 11-5 and fell to Luther South. Sarah Rodgers led Westminster (2-16) with a team-high 15 points.
Neuqua Valley 60, South Elgin 57: South Elgin (11-12, 3-5) fell just short of an Upstate Eight Conference victory over Neuqua Valley. Courtney Kumerow (18 points) and Alexa Kruel (14 points) led South Elgin's scoring.
Hampshire 74, Richmond-Burton 38: The Whip-Purs (16-7, 7-1) came prepared from the start as they defeated Richmond-Burton on Senior Night, winning for the 11th time in their last 12 games and inching closer to at least a share of the Big Northern East title. Christine Schumacher collected 13 points, including three 3-pointers to lead Hampshire. Chrissy Heine added 12 points for the Whips while Mallory Koster, Gianina Estocado and Cassie Dumoulin each had 11.
Lake Forest Academy 43, Elgin Academy 37: After an outstanding attempt to come back in the fourth quarter the Hilltoppers (8-15, 4-6) fell to Lake Forest Academy in the Independent School League. Lauren Steimle led EA with 16 points. Alyssa Pena (10 points, 7 rebounds) and Bianca Swegler (6 rebounds, 5 steals) also contributed.
Cary-Grove 57, Jacobs 46: In the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division, Danielle Smith scored 17 points to lead Cary-Grove (20-3, 6-0) to the win. Markie Rahn led Jacobs (12-10, 3-3) with 21 points. Jill Cole added 15 points for the Trojans and Jamie Kuhl had 11.
St. Charles East 64, Larkin 60:ŒSenior guard Alyssa Burns scored 20 points and senior forward Sophie Sterricker tallied 18 for the Royals (4-17, 2-5) but it wasn't enough to earn an overtime victory in the Upstate Eight at St. Charles East (13-8, 6-2).
McHenry 45, Dundee-Crown 22:ŒThe Chargers fell in a Valley Division road game to the Warriors. Robyn Staudenmeier scored 8 points for Dundee-Crown (10-12, 3-3), which was limited to 3 points in the first and third quarters by upstart McHenry (4-15, 1-5).
Prairie Ridge 45, Crystal Lake Central 36:ŒHost Prairie Ridge (10-14, 4-2) won the battle of Walkup Rd., thanks to 12 points from junior guard Shannon Hennelly and 10 points apiece from junior forward Chelsea Laska and sophomore guard Anna Patras.
Huntley 49, Grayslake North 28:Œkept pace with Prairie Ridge to stay tied for second place in the Fox Division of the Fox Valley Conference with this home win against the Knights. Daisy Jara and Katie Lowery each scored 13 points to lead the Red Raiders (14-9, 4-2).
Burlington Central 44, North Boone 36:ŒJordan Maisto led the Rockets to a win in the Big Northern-East with 20 points on the strength of six 3-pointers. Forward Melanie Laird added 14 points for Burlington Central (16-7, 6-1)
Boys Basketball
Northridge Prep 60, Elgin Academy 26: Cory Ebert scored 10 points for the Hilltoppers (2-17) in this nonconference loss.
St. Charles N. 51, Fremd 44: The St. Charles North boys basketball team is one of the hottest in the area -- and there was no slowing the North Stars down Saturday.
With a season-low 4 turnovers and a strong pressure defense, the North Stars beat host Fremd 51-44 in a nonconference game.
A day after shooting 30 percent in a 1-point win over Lake Park, the North Stars hit 15 of 33 field goals and made 14 free throws in the fourth quarter.
Junior Nick Neari had 12 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block as the North Stars won for the 11th time in 13 games.
"At the beginning of the season we were just trying to figure out what we could do," Neari said, when asked to explain the team's hot streak after a 2-7 start. "We were trying to figure out who plays where and what role we play. I think once we figured out what are roles were we really took off from there."
Jonathan DeMoss had 12 points, 9 in the second half, and 4 rebounds for St. Charles North (13-9), which led the entire game. Tim Janeway scored 8 and Mike Lefelstein added 7 for the North Stars.
"I think defensively each possession mattered and we played like that," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "Offensively we were intelligent in the half court sets because we had to see what they were in with the way they were changing defenses."
Zach Hirsch hit his second 3-pointer to give St. Charles North a 14-7 lead three minutes into the second quarter.
A pair of free throws by Fremd sophomore Christopher Klimek cut the North Stars lead to 1, but a 3-point play from Mike Kastel (5 points, 2 blocks) gave St. Charles North a 18-14 halftime lead.
Six straight points from Klimek (15 points, 9 rebounds) in the fourth quarter cut the North Stars' lead to 32-29 with just under five minutes left. St. Charles North responded with a 13-5 run to take a 45-34 lead with 1:20 remaining.
Daniel Bruno led the way with 17 points for the Vikings (8-10) and didn't stop attacking the basket until the final buzzer sounded.
Fremd was without leading scorer Jim Mundt, who hurt his ankle in practice on Tuesday.
"We don't want to use (Mundt's injury) as an excuse but Jimmy has done a real nice job for us," said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski. "He's really consistent and brings a lot of energy to what we want to do and he's a senior. But I think we needed to execute better with the kids that we had on the floor."
-- Joe Esse
Men's basketball
Judson 78, Trinity Christian 67: In the biggest game of the season, Judson University (13-6, 6-0) came away with its biggest win of the year over Trinity Christian College. The win gives Judson sole possession of first place in the CCAC and ties the longest winning streak in school history. This win also is big in the national poll as Trinity Christian had received 18 votes coming into the game.
It was a night of scoring, also, as the top two scorers in the CCAC faced off in Judson's Dewayne Robinson and Trinity Christian's Kurt Gruppen. Robinson finished with 23 points while Gruppen had 20. Judson had three other scorers in double figures with Ilija Bojanic (20), Steffan Williams (14), and Justen Boyd (11).
Women's basketball
Judson 64, Trinity Christian 54: Kelly Friestad fired home 21 points for a career-high as she led the Judson University women's basketball team (8-12, 3-2) to a CCAC win over Trinity Christian College. Judson has now won three of its last four games.
Devonaye Henderson added 16 points for Judson.