St. Charles North has hot hand in downing Crystal Lake Central
St. Charles North boys basketball coach Tom Poulin just needed to glance at the 3-pointers made and assist statistics to crack a smile.
Poulin's fourth-seeded North Stars converted 8 shots from beyond the arc and collected 20 assists with 27 baskets made in a 67-52 win over No. 9 seed Crystal Lake Central in semifinal action of the Class 4A Jacobs regional Tuesday night in Algonquin.
St. Charles North (19-8) will tangle with top-seeded Jacobs for the regional crown Friday at 7 p.m. The Golden Eagles downed 10th-seeded Streamwood 47-30 Tuesday.
"The kids have really bought in to passing the ball to the open man," said Poulin. "We shared the ball very well tonight and have shared it well all season long. We shot the 3 very well tonight within the offense. We were a little nervous early and we need to shore up our defense for Friday night. We gave Crystal Lake too many open looks."
Anthony Delisi, with 5 assists, paced the North Stars with 17 points including a trey.
"We have really good team chemistry and we work together as a team," said Delisi. "The open man gets the ball. We don't care who scores."
Brendan Dal Degan, with 3 assists, buried 5 treys for 15 points for the winners.
'I felt the 3 tonight," said Dal Degan. "The guys did a great job of getting me the ball in good position to score. We have a lot of fun playing together. We do a good job of getting the ball to the hot hand."
Cade Callaghan tallied 11 points with 4 assists while Kyle King scored 9 including 8 in the first quarter.
Nursing a slim 27-25 advantage, the North Stars seized control of the contest by scoring the final 8 points of the first half to secure a 35-25 lead at intermission.
Ryan Callaghan and Erik Larson nailed 3s while Nathan Bruns had a putback during the North Stars' crucial 8-0 surge.
The Tigers scored the first 5 points of the second half on a trey by Christian Lerum and a 15-footer from Adam Wittenberg to slice the North Stars' lead 35-30 with 6:02 remaining in the third quarter.
That was as close as Crystal Lake Central would get.
The North Stars, who connected on 8-of-20 shots from beyond the arc for 40 percent, registered their biggest lead of the game at 20, 63-43, after Dal Degan's final 3 of the night with 1:49 left in the contest.
The Tigers, who finished the season at 9-18, connected on 8-of-13 from 3-point land for a blistering 62 percent.
Lerum, with two 3s, led the Tigers with 13 points while Evan Cassell, who collected 3 trifectas, added 11 points.