St. Charles North rallies Batavia in OT
Not much went right for St. Charles North in the first half Friday at Batavia, yet there wasn't much cause for concern.
For one, the North Stars had barely practiced this week. Coach Tom Poulin was confident his team would play better as the game went on.
Even better, the North Stars had Jake Ludwig on their side.
After scoring just 3 points in the opening half, Ludwig finished with 18 including a highlight-filled stretch in the third quarter with three consecutive "and-1" baskets to lead his team to a 63-61 come-from-behind win in overtime.
"Jake took over," North Stars senior Jack Callaghan said. "He was a man among boys. We needed that tonight. Jake was awesome tonight and he carried us offensively when things were down and out."
Batavia (9-8, 2-5) deserves the credit for putting St. Charles North (10-6, 5-1) in that hole. Sparked by the return from Tyler Lovestrand, playing in just his second game after missing 11 straight with a wrist injury, the Bulldogs built leads of 13-7 after one quarter and 26-19 at halftime.
"They woke us up the first quarter," North Star guard Mikey Schroeder said.
Kamontez Thomas, Canaan Coffey and Lovestrand opened the third quarter with 3-point baskets. Coffey fed John Fitch for a score inside and a 37-25 Batavia lead - its biggest of the game.
Schroeder made one of his three 3-point baskets that started a 14-2 North Star run to the tie game at 39. Ludwig had the final 11 points in that surge, including his array of impressive moves to the basket to score while being fouled. He finished 8 of 8 at the line.
"Jake needs to exert himself," Poulin said of his senior point guard who has been sidelined this week with bronchitis. "When he does that it makes everybody better. Going to the rim like that and finishing was great but it also led to other people being open as the second half went on."
Brett Bowman's 3-point play gave the Bulldogs their final lead at 42-39 before another Schroeder trey tied the game going to the fourth.
The North Stars built a 52-47 lead on 3s from Schroeder and Armon Osborne. The Bulldogs rallied and pulled even at 54 thanks to a putback basket from Fitch, Lovestrand's fastbreak layup on a feed from Coffey, and then Coffey's clutch 3 off an out-of-bounds play with 53 seconds left.
The North Stars missed three shots in the final minute, each time getting the offensive rebound to get another crack at the win.
Callaghan quickly put the North Stars ahead in overtime with a 3-pointer that banked in.
"I had not taken a shot for the whole second half so I was a little rushed," Callaghan said. "Thank God it went in."
The North Stars' next two buckets came much easier on cuts to the basket by Schroeder and Callaghan for easy lay-ins and a 61-58 lead.
"They were hedging all night on the ball screen," Callaghan said. "My guy had been hedging so hard we just said slip, don't even screen and that's how I got the open layup."
Down 63-58, Coffey gave Batavia one last chance sinking a 3-pointer with 17.7 seconds to go. Schroeder missed the front end of a 1-and-1.
After the North Stars knocked the ball out of bounds under Batavia's basket with 4.9 seconds left, Batavia inbounded to Chasen Peez inside but the senior's short fadeaway rimmed off.
"We came into hostile territory and I don't know if we were as focused as we should have been," Callaghan said. "It just shows we are resilient and got the job done tonight. A lot of guys stepped up."
Schroeder (19 points), Ludwig (18) and Callaghan (10) led the offensive attack while Griffin Hammer pulled down 10 rebounds.
"He (Schroeder) just played so hard," Poulin said. "He was really dialed in and focused. He was a leader tonight."
The North Stars shot nearly identical percentages at 23 of 51 from the field (45.1) and 10 of 12 (83.3) at the line to Batavia's 22 of 53 (41.5) and 9 of 11 (81.8).
"It looked as if the way we were shooting the ball (in the first half) nobody touched the ball (while school was out)," Poulin said. "I told the guys this is what we expected offensively. We were going to be rusty."
Both teams also had 9 turnovers in an evenly matched game that could have gone either way.
"We're there but we're missing the last hurdle," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "We're good but we're trying to be great. We need a breakthrough win. We just have to get a little better. Can't have the third-quarter lapse."
Coffey and Lovestrand led Batavia with 18 and 14 points, respectively.
"There was a lot of good that happened in that game too," Nazos said. "We have guys who are getting better and coming along. I think we're going to get there."