Ludke's big bucket powers St. Charles East

Basketball box scores are great for statistic lovers.

But they don't always reveal the whole story.

Luke Ludke's final numbers from Monday night's Class 4A regional play-in contest between St. Charles East and DeKalb showed 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting from the floor.

But those 2 points came at the most important time of the night.

The 6-foot-5 junior forward found himself in the right place at the right time, as his offensive-rebound putback with 2 seconds remaining lifted fourth-seeded St. Charles East (14-13) to a 49-47 victory over fifth-seeded DeKalb (7-23).

"We had a set play and it kind of fell apart a little bit," Ludke said of the Saints' final possession that began with 23.7 seconds remaining. "I was on the block, Charlie (Fisher) drove and went up (with the shot).

"Suddenly, the ball was right there in my hands so I just put it up. You don't have time to think right there just act and it went in."

Saints coach Brian Clodi, whose team was ahead by as many as 16 points midway through the third quarter, was pleased with Ludke's court awareness on the game-winning shot.

"I just loved how he got the rebound," said Clodi. "He came a long way to get it. He was like, 'I'm not going to let these guys lose.' "

For the better part of three quarters, it certainly didn't look like the Saints would need a buzzer-beater to advance to Tuesday's semifinal game against top-seeded South Elgin.

Limiting the Barbs to a season-low 14 first-half points, St. Charles East led 25-14 at the intermission.

Although the teams played on even terms during the third quarter, the Saints still carried an 11-point lead (41-30) into the fourth period, thanks in part to the play of sophomore guard Kendall Stephens (game-high 15 points) and junior forward Johnny Hondlik (14 points, 9 rebounds).

"When Johnny decides he's going to dominate a game, he's going to dominate a lot of games," Clodi said of Hondlik. "Tonight, we got him a lot of good looks inside and he also hit those two 3s."

Held to just one 3-point basket through the first three quarters, DeKalb began to find the range in the final stanza.

Jake Jouris (11 points) hit a 3-pointer on the Barbs' opening possession of the fourth quarter to make it 41-33.

After a pair of free throws from Andre Harris (12 points) narrowed the Saints' lead to 41-35, junior point guard Brian Sisler (10 points, 4 assists) put the Barbs on his shoulders by scoring his team's next 10 points.

His cold-blooded 3-pointer from the corner with 4:05 remaining tied the game at 45-all.

"You've got to give DeKalb credit," said Clodi. "Number 10 (Sisler) is a stud. We did an unbelievable job on him in the first half but we left him and he made us pay. He single-handedly brought them back."

The teams traded baskets before Kyle Berg missed a pair of free throws with 1:39 left that would have given DeKalb its first lead of the night.

Hondlik grabbed the rebound and the Saints held the ball for nearly 2 minutes leading up to Ludke's heroics.

"Both teams were fighting and obviously we made one more play tonight," said Clodi, whose team climbed above the .500 mark for the first time this season. "We're happy to move on."

"I'm proud of the kids," said Barbs coach Dave Rohlman. "They worked hard and went out fighting."