Stars collide in battle of St. Charles
They play at different St. Charles high schools, but Quinten Payne and Kendall Stephens have a lot in common.
Both are obviously very talented basketball players who have been generating interest for years. Both are in their juniors year at high school, and they each already have settled on a college with Stephens heading to the Big Ten to play at Purdue and Payne joining his older brother at Cully at Loyola.
Both ooze with athletic ability which they often display in crowd-pleasing fashion with a variety of slam dunks. Stephens and Payne are similar in size at 6-foot-5 and 6-4, respectively.
They always provide an interesting subplot when St. Charles East and St. Charles North play. The latest meeting came Saturday night at North where the North Stars knocked the Saints out of first place in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division with a 52-46 victory.
Payne and his teammates have had the upper hand against the Saints in five games the past two years, winning all the meetings except earlier this season at the St. Charles East Thanksgiving Tournament. While Payne scored a game-high 19 points in the win Saturday, his defense against Stephens was perhaps more important in setting the tone.
Payne started the game guarding Stephens and held him to 0-of-5 shooting and 0 points in the first half as the North Stars built an 8-point halftime lead they never relinquished.
While Stephens found his shot with 10 third-quarter points, he did almost all his damage on jump shots. He didn’t shoot a free throw in the game, and his coach Patrick Woods said his star junior — like the rest of his players — still has room to improve.
“Kendall is just a junior too,” Woods said. “He’s got a lot of improving. Just because he’s committed to Purdue doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to get better. Obviously he has a great jump shot but he has to work on attacking the basket and being aggressive and knowing the situation. He’s got a lot to work on his game as well. He’s just like every other one of our kids.”
On the other hand, Payne constantly was attacking which helped him get to the free-throw line 9 times. He hit all 9 of those free throws and by drawing so many fouls helped his team get in the bonus early and allowed them to shoot 34 free throws.
Payne said his game has come a long way from his sophomore year when at times he tried to do too much offensively. While there’s been a number of reasons for the improved play that includes a lot of work with trainers to get stronger, confidence is at the top of the list.
“Working with my dad on shooting stuff and being more confident with the ball and relaxing on the floor,” Payne said of how he has improved. “Sometimes I’d get sped up a bit and that’s what happened last year. It’s getting better slowing down. I’m a little more physical. I (credit trainers) getting a little better skill set and playing with confidence out there.”
St. Charles North’s win pulled the North Stars (7-11, 3-2) even with the Saints (8-5, 3-2) at 3-2 in the UEC River. Both are a half-game behind Elgin (3-1) and Geneva (3-1) in what could be a race — like last year — that goes down to the final game of the regular season.
“Conference is going to be a war,” Woods said. “I don’t think by any means we are out of the hunt right now. We just have to get better. We need to bring more intensity. We’re not playing 32 minutes.”