North Stars want to keep good times rolling
St. Charles North is enjoying the best boys basketball season in program history - and the North Stars don't want the ride to end.
"I've been waiting for this year for a while," said St. Charles North senior Jonathan DeMoss, who joined the varsity as a freshman. "Going 10-20 in my first year and just getting better every year has been so big. It's just fun to still be out here after winning a regional title."
St. Charles North (21-8) advanced to tonight's Class 4A Elgin sectional semifinal against Rockford Auburn (21-8) at 7:30 p.m. via a convincing 60-42 victory over South Elgin in the DeKalb regional championship on Friday. It was a revenge game for St. Charles North, which had lost to South Elgin on Senior Night in St. Charles on Feb. 20.
Likewise, Auburn won the Rockford Guilford regional by reversing an earlier loss to Hononegah with a 57-43 victory. The regional title was the first for the Knights since 1993.
Dundee-Crown (21-5) will face McHenry (16-12) in the second sectional semifinal at Chesbrough Field House on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
"I guess I would say it has to be considered wide open," Auburn coach Bryan Ott said of the Elgin sectional.
"I think we're coming out of the toughest regional by quite a bit when you look at the overall records of the teams that were in our regional compared to the other three regionals. But that doesn't take anything away from St. Charles North, which has had a very fine season, or Dundee-Crown.
"At this point everybody's shooting for the same thing, but I don't think there is a clear-cut favorite. I'd like to think it's us, but we're going to have to prove that on the floor."
The Knights were forced to adjust their lineup on Jan. 23, when 6-foot-7 starting center Eddie Bowling and his 11.9 points per game were lost to an injury suffered during pregame warmups. Senior forward Ayrryous Ford (6-4) joined the starting lineup and has since averaged 12 points a game. Ford gained experience last season when Bowling was ruled academically ineligible for the second semester.
Auburn runs an up-tempo, guard-oriented offense with seniors Darnell VanVleet (12.5 ppg.), Kashif Maxwell (8.9), Eddie Cade (7.8) and Cortavien Wiggins. Of that group, only VanVleet (6-2) tops six feet.
That gives the North Stars a distinct size advantage with starters DeMoss (6-3) and Nick Neari (6-3) at guard, forwards Zach Hirsch (6-4) and Josh Mikes (6-4) and center Mike Kastel (6-7).
"They start such a big lineup," Ott said. "Their size is going to create a matchup issue for us."
Auburn's speed and ability to penetrate concern the North Stars.
"I think we're going to have to keep the ball out of the lane, whether in transition or in the half court," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "They're very quick. They have good ballhandlers who make good decisions with the ball. To complement that they have a real aggressive and active big guy in Ford, and VanVleet can stroke the ball from anywhere.
"When you have guys who can break down a defense, they've got options. The little ballhandlers can finish. They're smart enough to take what you give them and pitch it out to a shooter or drop it off to their big guy. So it's going to be our defense being able to keep it out of the lane and if it does get in the lane, making sure we rotate properly and not leave or help off certain people.
"Hopefully, we've gotten our work done over the past couple of days and know what we're doing. It's just going to come down to trying to keep the ball in front of us."
Both teams are familiar with the surroundings at Chesbrough. The North Stars won an Upstate Eight road game at Elgin, 55-44 on Jan. 8. The Knights played four games at Chesbrough during the Elgin Holiday Tournament, where they went 2-2.
The North Stars and Knights did not play this season, but they have faced three common opponents: Fremd, Crystal Lake South and Rockford Jefferson.
St. Charles North defeated Fremd 52-49 on Jan. 31 in St. Charles; Auburn lost to Fremd 46-38 on Dec. 23 at Elgin.
The North Stars lost at home to Jefferson, 70-67 on Dec. 13; Aubrn beat Jefferson twice, including a 58-50 victory in the opening game of the Guilford regional last week.
St. Charles North defeated CL South 73-55 at the Jacobs Holiday Tournament on Dec. 22; Auburn defeated CL South 53-44 in the season opener on Nov. 26.
A win would advance St. Charles North to a sectional title game for the first time in school history. The North Stars won a Class AA regional in 2005 but bowed out to Larkin in a semifinal. Auburn has not won a sectional title since the 1978-79 season. Led by an experienced group of seniors who broke through to win a regional title after suffering losses in regional title games the previous two seasons, St. Charles North enters sectional play a smarter team than the one that opened the season.
"We learned some lessons early on with a real tough schedule," Poulin said. "After learning, we made the corrections and continued to progress. Right now we're clicking. Down the stretch we faced some adversity with some starters not being able to play and some guys getting nicked up, and that just made our bench stronger.
"After seeing how we reacted in the regional with the different atmosphere and the pressures you get with one-and-done in the state tournament, I'm real proud of the way our guys are playing basketball on both ends of the floor."