St. Charles North falters against Proviso East
It didn't take long - about the time Proviso East takes to force a turnover on one end and turn it into a layup on the other - for all the good thoughts about St. Charles North's season-opening win to change to the opposite emotion.
After calling Tuesday's win over Downers Grove South one of the North Stars' best he's had in the early season as coach, Poulin watched Proviso East bring St. Charles North back to earth in rude fashion, winning 78-35 Wednesday night at the Ron Johnson Thanksgiving tournament at St. Charles East.
"This season is going to be about meeting challenges and we didn't meet the challenge today whatsoever," Poulin said.
"I thought we played on our heels and weren't confident in our ability and we should be. We didn't get the game at the pace we wanted. Really none of the things we talked about in the morning shootaround did I even see our guys try to implement."
St. Charles North turned the ball over 25 times. The North Stars went through one stretch in the second quarter without a basket on 10 straight possessions, and the Pirates capitalized turning a 17-11 lead into 29-11.
One problem for the North Stars came on what should have been their best possessions. Several times they worked for good shots but were unable to score at point-blank range.
"They (Proviso East) can jump out of anywhere and get you," North Stars senior guard David Johnson said. "You just need to play through that. We got nervous every time we got the ball around the basket. We just need to finish those. Hopefully we get better at that."
Brenton Little led the Pirates with 23 points, including a couple thunderous dunks. Keith Carter scored 16 and assisted on an alley-oop dunk to Little with 5 seconds left in the first half. After a North Star turnover with .5 seconds remaining, Carter swished a 3-pointer just before the buzzer to further demoralize the North Stars down 37-17 at halftime.
"We didn't do the little things early in the game to make a team like that earn a victory," Poulin said.
"They are real athletic but we did not come out focused. They got up 10 points in the first half and our body language suggested the game was over. That's not what we're about at St. Charles North. It was a little disappointing."
Josh Mikes led the North Stars with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Chris Conrad and Johnson both scored 7. Scott Hodges added a basket off the bench, the only bench points the North Stars have in two games.
"We need to do a good job of developing our bench so they can contribute," Poulin said. "We'll work and be stronger as the year goes on."
The North Stars will try to bounce back at 7:45 p.m. Friday against St. Charles East (0-2). A win would give them a chance to play for third place Saturday.
"We were really happy with our win yesterday," Johnson said."I think we didn't come out mentally prepared. We didn't make the extra pass, we didn't crash the boards like we did last night."