Defense lifts St. Charles East
Defense.
Mixing in a variety of defenses and presses, St. Charles East held Dundee-Crown to 27 percent shooting and forced 19 Charger turnovers in posting a 45-34 nonconference boys basketball win in Carpentersville Tuesday night.
“Our team defense was excellent,” said St. Charles East coach Brian Clodi. “We used a lot of different defenses and presses and our pressure really bothered them. We really executed defensively and forced them into some bad shots.”
The Saints (9-10) came out of the locker room sizzling. Getting 3-pointers from Spencer Motley, Johnny Hondlik and Kendall Stephens, the Saints held a 9-0 lead with 6:22 left in the first quarter.
St. Charles East, which scored only 7 points the rest of the half, led 16-15 at intermission. A layup at the buzzer by Ryan Smith pulled D-C within a point of the Saints after 16 minutes.
St. Charles East repeated its first half start to begin the second half.
The Saints set the tone on their first possession of the third quarter. Stephens drilled a long 3-pointer and was fouled on the play. Stephens connected on the free throw to complete the 4-point play and St. Charles East had a 20-15 lead early in the third quarter.
The Saints ripped off 7 more unanswered points to complete a 11-0 run to take a 27-15 advantage. A 3 by Motley and layups by Stephens and Hondlik gave St. Charles East a 12-point lead with 4:46 left in the third quarter.
The closest the Chargers (10-7) got was 4, 31-27, after a 3-pointer by Will Stupar with 7:29 left in the game.
The Saints sealed the win by making 10-of-13 free throws in the final 2:12. Mike Woods made 4-of-4 from the line and Stephens 4-of-6 as St. Charles East posted an 11-point road win.
Stephens led the Saints with 17 points while Hondlik and Motley netted 10 each.
“Coach is really stressing defense and we are taking a lot of pride in our defense,” said Stephens. “We had a long bus ride and had some jet lag so this is a nice win.”
Smith led D-C with 15 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocked shots.
“St. Charles East really stuck to us and played tremendous team defense.” said Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber. “We had some good looks and missed 4 to 6 layups and it came down to lack of execution.”