Boys basketball: Mellican’s 28 leads St. Charles North past Woodstock

After having his team take both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off, St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin had his squad go through a Friday morning walk-through for their fifth-place bracket semifinal versus Woodstock at the Elgin Holiday Tournament to get his team back into game-playing mode.

After having only played a few minutes, it seemed like that walk-through was a huge success as the North Stars used a quick start to build a lead that held firm en route to a 75-48 triumph at Chesbrough Fieldhouse.

SCN (5-7) will face Chicago Lake View (7-5) in Saturday’s 4:45 p.m. fifth-place bout.

The Wildcats held off Antioch (2-10) 59-48 in the other game in the bracket.

“We’re a team that just thrives off of energy and comes out right away off the (starting) blocks,” North Stars senior forward Cooper Mellican said after his game-high 28-point, nine-rebound effort.

“That’s when we’re at our best. When we play hard. We’re just trying to stay consistent. Show up every day and get our work done.”

Mellican and his teammates did just that in a dominant first period that saw them get off to a 12-2 advantage which featured 6 of his 28 points, all of which came from inside the paint.

After a triple by Woodstock junior guard Max Beard pulled them within 12-5 at the 4:30 mark, SCN proceeded to go on a game-deciding 13-3 run to end the quarter and for all intents and purposes, the game with a 25-8 lead after one.

The Blue Streaks (9-3) never got any closer than 25-13 on Beard’s second trey with 6:40 remaining in the first half as it struggled from the floor going 19-56 (33%) overall and 5-29 (17%) from beyond the arc.

“I told our kids that I felt that mentally we weren’t ready to play today,” Woodstock coach Ryan Starnes said.

“We had some mental breakdowns at the start and that was the biggest disappointment.”

Beard’s 14 paced the Blue Streaks, while 6-0 senior forward J.J. Stokes added 11 and 6 boards.

Woodstock, who currently shares front-runner status in the Kishwaukee River Conference with Plano and Johnsburg, completes their week at Elgin with a 1:45 p.m. Saturday matinee versus the Sequoits in a tournament experience that Starnes relishes.

“The whole reason we come here is to prepare ourselves for KRC play,” Starnes said.

“We see teams that are big, strong, and that are fast, we see (Class) 4A. To take one on the chin like this is probably good for us as long as we learn from this.”