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St. Charles North blows by Streamwood

After waiting more than 9 months, St. Charles North's basketball team was happy for some home cooking Thursday night.

Then the North Stars (3-4, 1-1) feasted on an undermanned Streamwood (0-7, 0-3) team.

Senior guard Jake Ludwig scored 8 of his game-high 15 points during an 18-5 first-quarter surge that propelled the North Stars to a convincing 79-29 Upstate Eight Conference River Division triumph in St. Charles.

"It was nice to be home again," said Ludwig, who helped ignite the North Stars' 18-2 start through the first 6 minutes.

"It's nice to play a home game - it feels like forever," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin, whose team played its first 5 games at the St. Charles East/Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament before last Sunday's contest against St. Patrick at the Ridgewood Shootout.

The North Stars also received a much-needed lift from 6-5 sophomore forward Griffin Hammer, who helped the energize his team early with 3 rebounds (2 offensive), 1 steal, an assist and a free throw during the first 3 minutes.

Hammer finished with 8 points, a game-high 11 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and a blocked shot in his first varsity start.

"He gives us an element we need because he's long, he can finish through contact and get us boards," said Ludwig.

"He gives us what we don't have which is length and size," Poulin said of Hammer. "We can play inside-outside with him. He is a willing passer out of the post.

"He did a good job on the boards. He was active and he ran the floor."

Poulin second-guessed himself for not giving Hammer additional playing time during Thanksgiving week.

"I should have given him more minutes," admitted the coach. "You get stuck in that tournament trying to win the thing and then you're apprehensive to put in kids who are kind of new to the varsity level. You re-evaluate things after watching the films a couple times."

Poulin expects his team's youngest player to continue to make huge strides.

"He's just scratching the surface," the coach said. "He's getting better with every second that he practices or plays."

Armon Osborne came off the bench to score 15 points while senior forward Jack Callaghan added 12 points and 5 steals for the North Stars, who held the Sabres to 3 first-half field goals - all by freshmen Brendon Marton and Phil Cruz.

St. Charles North led 32-11 at halftime and 56-19 after 3 quarters.

"We needed to kind of right the ship, get well and do things the right way," said Poulin. "Any time you hold somebody to 29 points, you're doing what you need to do defensively."

Marton had 11 points and 8 rebounds for Streamwood, which was without 3 starters - Joey O'Halloran (flu), Max Draper (separated shoulder) and Jake McGlone (mononucleosis).

"St. Charles North is a good team - they're well-coached, they pressure you and they target your weaknesses," said Sabres coach Paul Kowalyszyn. "Our weaknesses are ball-handling and guard play."

Streamwood committed 30 turnovers for the contest.

"When they're playing against a real good team like this, their weaknesses are glaring," Kowalyszyn said.

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