St. Charles North dumps Hoffman Estates
Lost in the hoopla of the St. Charles North football team's berth in the IHSA Class 7A championship game Saturday afternoon is that the school's winter sports programs are in full operation with their schedules in tact.
Take the North Stars girls basketball team, which wrapped up the Pilgrim Classic at Hoffman Estates versus the host school earlier Saturday looking to finish up the tourney winning its fourth game in five tries.
Using a process similar to wrapping that special Christmas present, SCN was able to gradually complete the task in beating the Hawks 50-25 to take second place.
"It broke our hearts that we couldn't work things out so our kids could make the trip down (to Champaign) to cheer the football team on but as far as the game was concerned, I like how we were able to regain control of the pace in the second quarter after Hoffman had done so in the first," St. Charles North coach Mike Tomczak said.
Outside of an opening hoop by Hoffman's 6-foot-2 senior center Raven Wilson (12 points), North never trailed as 5-10 forward Annie Tate's game-high 15 points built an 8-4 lead for the North Stars after one.
A 19-4 second period settled matters for SCN (4-1) as a pair of 3-pointers from freshman guard Emma Ludwig (10 points) helped to give them a 27-8 advantage at the break.
Tate would then dominate the third quarter as she had a hand in all 13 North Star points by scoring their first 10 points and then topping it off by feeding Makenna Collins for a 3-pointer with 2:02 left.
The Hawks (1-4) would get no closer than 19 in the final eight minutes of play.
"The start was kind of rough but we got things flowing in the second by doing a better job on defense," Tate said.
Hoffman Estates coach Mike Koester spoke of his team's lost opportunities in the early going.
"I thought we played well at the start, but we gave them too many offensive rebounds which they were able to convert and things started to slip away from us. I liked how we never gave up, especially in the fourth quarter," he said.
The Hawks will travel to Hersey for a Mid-Suburban League crossover Tuesday prior to opening MSL West play versus archrival Conant at home Friday while the North Stars begin their maiden voyage in DuKane Conference play hosting Wheaton North next Saturday.
"It'll be a hard-fought competitive league, but I believe we're up for the challenge," Tate said.
"You think about that in recent years that at least two of the top four seeds in the sectional have been schools in our new conference," Tomczak said. "We think we have what it takes to be competitive."