Third quarter costly to St. Charles North
Going to the halftime break can be good for some teams and bad for others.
St. Charles North had a good first half Sunday but countered with a poor second half.
"It's something that has been a plague for us this year," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin.
It struck again as St. Charles North built a 36-26 halftime lead against St. Patrick from Chicago at the Ridgewood Shootout in Norridge, only to lose 71-57.
"We had the energy in the first half," said St. Charles North guard Mikey Schroeder, who scored 14 points, including three 3-pointers. "To lose a 10-point lead like that is just not acceptable. We have to be able to come out in the second half of games with energy and heart."
The North Stars were hoping to avenge last year's 66-52 loss to the Shamrocks at the same facility. St. Charles North dropped to a tough 2-4, while St. Patrick stayed undefeated at 6-0.
North did almost everything right connecting on six 3-pointers. They forced 5 Shamrock turnovers in the second quarter to build the lead to 36-26 after leading 21-16 through one quarter.
The North Stars did not fair well in the third, being outscored 20-2 and trailing 46-38 going into the fourth.
St. Pat's connected on its first 5 shots of which 4 were 3-pointers in tying the game at 38-38. Andy Velazquez scored 7 of his 11 points in the third quarter. Forward Adrian Pierzchanowski finished with a career-high 29 points.
"We had to tighten up our defense," Pierzchanowski said. "Because of that it helped get our offense going. We just had to fill the gaps a little better in the second half than we did in the first half."
With St. Patrick leading 51-38 early in the fourth quarter, St. Charles North went on a 8-0 run. Arman Osborne (11 points) hit a pair of 3-pointers, and Griffin Hammer added a basket with 5:20 to go to make it 51-46.
Trailing 58-52 with 3:15 left, the Shamrocks closed the game with a 13-5 run.
The North Stars finished with 10 3-point baskets, the Shamrocks 7.
Jake Ludwig added 13 points, and Jack Callaghan netted 10, each contributing 5 rebounds.
"It was a challenging weekend with St. Charles East Saturday night and then today," Poulin said. "We gave it a good effort, so to come out of it 0-2 was disappointing."
"Our guys were a little embarrassed at the way we played in the first half," St. Patrick coach Mike Bailey said. "They came out in the first half and played great and we were a step slow. Once we got our first stop on them in the second half our team began to play with more confidence."