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St. Charles East tops Willowbrook to win own tourney title

Nearly 24 hours after suffering its first loss of the season in turnover-prone fashion against Proviso East, St. Charles East's basketball team made up for it in a big way Saturday night.

Led by Most Valuable Player Cody Mitchell and a strong supporting cast, the Saints (3-1) captured the 60th annual Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament title with an impressive 77-60 victory over Willowbrook (3-1) in St. Charles.

After the teams played to a 21-21 first-quarter standoff, the Saints opened the second quarter with 7 unanswered points and added a 10-0 run later in the period to take a 38-27 halftime advantage.

Mitchell, who finished with a game-high 23 points, 9 rebounds and 3 steals, keyed the early surge with 4 points while all-tournament teammate Nate Ortiz (12 points) canned a 3-pointer to make it 28-21.

After the Warriors countered with back-to-back baskets from Isaac Gaines and Everett Stubblefield to draw within 28-25, the Saints responded with 10 unanswered points - 5 of them coming from senior Mark Musial (18 points, 8 rebounds).

Despite facing constant pressure from the Warriors' defense, the Saints committed just 5 first-half turnovers.

"I think Proviso East made us better for this game," said Saints coach Patrick Woods, whose team committed 24 turnovers in Friday's loss to the Pirates.

Ortiz picked up his third foul and was forced to the bench early in the third quarter but his departure didn't slow down the Saints.

Junior forward Chase Monkemeyer scored all 10 of his points on perfect 4-of-4 shooting from the field in the third quarter as the Saints extended their lead to 63-47.

"I thought Chase was great off the bench - he's been great all tournament," said Woods. "Jake (Champine) off the bench brought us a lot of energy, too."

The Saints also received solid play from their starting backcourt - sophomore Tommy Craven (8 points, 7 assists, 3 steals) and junior Luke Matheny (2 points, 6 assists).

"We tried to use the pressure from Proviso East, build off that and use it to our advantage tonight," said Craven, making his first varsity start. "We just tried to stay within ourselves."

"There's a reason why Tommy (Craven) is up with us and I think you saw it tonight," said Woods.

Mitchell felt his team was prepared to make amends for Friday's loss.

"I think a big part of it was the practice we had today," said Mitchell, who punctuated the win with a 1-handed dunk off a feed from Ortiz with 2:14 remaining. "We came in for the walk-through today and we all kind of knew that we laid an egg yesterday. We had enthusiasm and energy and it made all the difference in the world."

Stubblefield, who earned all-tourney honors along with teammate Matas Masys, led the Warriors with 19 points while Charlie Flak added 13 points.

"They crashed the boards better than we did," said Stubblefield, whose team was out-rebounded 35-30. "We played some good teams (in the tournament) but we just came up short today."

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