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St. Charles North's offense comes alive

St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin couldn't remember the last time his team put 87 points on the scoreboard, but he didn't have any trouble recalling the last time the North Stars looked as good as they did in an 87-66 win over Peoria Richwoods Saturday at Kaneland's Day and Knight of Hoops.

"That was a team I remember in November," said Poulin. "That was a team I remember in Pontiac as far as taking what they give us and sharing the basketball."

That teamwork showed up in the North Stars' getting one high-percentage shot after another throughout the game.

Through three quarters the North Stars had made 26 of their 37 field goal attempts (70.2 percent).

It also showed up in the final box score with four starters in double figures: Jake Ludwig (19 points), Jack Callaghan (18), Alec Goetz (17) and Garrett Johnson (12). Eric Miller wasn't far off with 7.

"The past few games we've had trouble getting the ball around, we've had a little bit of selfish play I guess you could say," Johnson said "But the main focus was to get the ball inside and we did that the best we could and that helped us find open people."

Peoria Richwoods (13-11) also shot the ball well early, making its first four 3-point attempts to take its biggest lead of the game at 16-11.

Callaghan drilled a 3 and then made a pair of free throws to quickly tie the game at 16. Callaghan canned another 3 moments later for a 21-19 lead - the North Stars stretched it to 25-19 after a quarter - and they never trailed again.

"Ball movement, we were finding each other," Callaghan said. "We put up 87 points and we had a pretty well distributed game.

"We have to put 32 minutes together. The last couple games, we played Batavia and Elgin and that didn't happen. Tonight we did it and we won by 23 against a pretty good Richwoods team."

Callaghan also made a key hustle play early in the game, diving for a loose ball twice on the same sequence after Goetz had earlier hit the floor.

"I think that set the tone," Callaghan said. "Not only myself but everyone was diving for loose balls. Every one was coming together on the defensive end and that's why we got 87 points."

The North Stars didn't keep up their 100-point pace in the second quarter. They did score 17 more points to lead 42-34 at halftime, then put the Knights away in the third.

Leading 44-39, Callaghan converted a three-point play. That kicked off a 20-4 run - with Ludwig scoring the final 11 points - for a 64-43 lead.

Ludwig's spree included back-to-back 3s, a three-point play off a steal and finally a layup. Johnny Davern took a feed from Keith Hedges and nailed one more 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to put the North Stars up 70-48.

"They didn't care who scored tonight, they just wanted St. Charles North to score, and when they do that we are as good as anybody," Poulin said.

Miller's slam dunk midway through the fourth quarter gave the North Stars an 81-58 lead. Sophomore Armon Osborne put the exclamation point on the North Stars' big night with a 4-point play in the final minute.

"This is an awesome event for a great cause," Poulin said. "We are proud to have been asked to be in it. We couldn't be happier with how it's been run and everything they have done here. We'll be here as long as they'll have us."

Kaelen Johnson and Javeer Ross both scored 14 points to lead Richwoods.

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