St. Charles East has its way with Prairie Ridge
ROCKFORD - St. Charles East boys basketball coach Patrick Woods received the best results possible from his team Wednesday night - a complete performance.
The Saints (18-12) started fast, outscoring Prairie Ridge 16-6 in the first 4 minutes and then delivered the knockout blow with a 22-5 third-quarter surge on the way to convincing 68-46 victory over the Wolves (25-4) in the Class 4A Rockford sectional semifinals at Rock Valley College.
"We talk about 32 minutes all the time," said Woods, whose Saints will shoot for their first sectional championship since 2001 Friday night against Rockford Auburn (23-6). "We were as close to playing 32 complete minutes as we've been all year."
Senior J.T. Ford (12 points) ignited the early run, connecting on his first three 3-point attempts - the last on a kind carom off the rim from the corner that gave the Saints a 14-4 lead just 3 minutes into the contest.
"We started out real fast," said Ford. "My guys were finding me and I was knocking them down. The rims were kind to me a couple times as well."
After Prairie Ridge closed within 16-15 on a reverse layup by Christopher Bradshaw (13 points) on the first possession of the second quarter, the Saints tallied 10 of the next 13 points highlighted by a 3-point play from sophomore forward Justin Hardy (9 points, 6 rebounds) and a pair of inside buckets by senior forward Zach Hondlik (13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists).
A late 3-pointer by Kyle Loeding allowed the Wolves to trim the halftime deficit to less than double digits at 34-25 - a number that sometimes can serve as a mental motivator.
Not this time.
St. Charles East began the third quarter on fire, as Ford found Hardy on an alley-oop, Hondlik scored from the inside and senior guard Evan DiLeonardi had a steal and layup to extend the lead to 40-25.
"Those first four minutes of the second half are so important," said Woods, whose team played without the services of junior guard Justin Mitchell (appendectomy). "We just got better defensively and we brought a lot of energy."
From there, the Saints continued their all-out assault with a 3-point play by senior guard James McQuillan (10 points) and another 3-pointer from the corner by Ford, his fourth of the game.
Senior guard Grayson Brucato put an exclamation mark to the third quarter with his buzzer-beating 3-pointer as the Saints' lead swelled to 26 at 56-30.
"It's just the way we shared the ball - it's so critical," said Woods, whose team shot 8 of 9 from the field in the third quarter with 6 different players contributing baskets.
"These guys are so unselfish," added Woods. "That's what we preach and that's how they played."
At one point, St. Charles East led 63-32 with 4:40 remaining - music to the ears of the raucous Saints' student section.
"The fans were awesome," said Hondlik. "The turnout was fantastic coming all the way out here to Rockford. It was great."
Payton Otto added 7 points for Prairie Ridge.
"That was a good, old-fashioned butt kicking," said Wolves coach Corky Card. "They came out and shot the ball well and played well. We did not play well tonight."