St. Charles North has too much for Elgin
St. Charles North boys basketball coach Tom Poulin stood courtside at Elgin's Chesbrough Field House Thursday night as his team warmed up and remarked how the impending game against the Maroons was of great concern to him.
Most coaches would share Poulin's concern, what with the North Stars having to play on the road against a team they beat by 60 points before Christmas, but a team that was missing its point guard that night and has competed better since that Dec. 13 embarrassment in St. Charles.
And while the North Stars did come away with a 68-54 Upstate Eight Conference River Division win, the Maroons made them work for it this time.
"We knew they'd be ready to go," said Poulin of the Maroons. "(Elgin coach) Mike (Sitter) does a great job preparing his kids, he really does. They're better and they didn't have 11 (Desmond Douglas) the first time, He's a difference maker."
Douglas, a junior, led the Maroons with 20 points and 4 steals but collectively Elgin couldn't contain North's 1-2 senior punch of Jake Ludwig and Jack Callaghan. Ludwig hit for a game-high 22 points and added 7 assists and 7 rebounds, while Callaghan scored 21 points and had 5 rebounds and 3 assists.
"The second round of conference always gets a little tougher," said Ludwig, who cracked a big smile when he heard Geneva had defeated St. Charles East and said, "good, we're still in it."
That the North Stars (14-7, 8-2) are, still just one game behind Geneva in the River standings with their Feb. 17 meeting in St. Charles now looming larger and larger.
The Maroons (6-19, 2-9), who scored just 27 points the last time they met SCN, came out with good energy and hung with their visitors through the first quarter, with North edging ahead 22-17 on a basket from senior John Davern with one second left in the quarter.
Elgin was still hanging in at 28-22 after a Lavion Baldwin basket with 5:09 left in the first half when the North Stars used 5 points from Callaghan and a 3-pointer from junior Michael Schroeder in a span of just over 2 minutes to take a 36-22 lead, which they extended to 44-29 by halftime, the final points coming on a 3-pointer from Callaghan with five seconds left.
Even though SCN, which shot a sizzling 59.5 percent (25-for-42) built the lead to as much as 21 twice in the second half and still led by 20 with 5:45 left in the game, the Maroons never quit and cut their deficit to 15, 62-47, on 2 free throws from Douglas with 5:18 to play. That prompted Poulin to put Ludwig and Callaghan, who had exited midway through the third quarter, back in the game to restore some order. Elgin got no closer than the final score.
"We were a little disappointed with our execution of the game plan on both ends of the floor but we did enough," said Poulin, whose team won its fourth straight and sixth in its last seven. "We got what we expect out of Jake and Jack tonight. They're consistent performers. We wanted to play inside-outside tonight and I wasn't pleased with how often we executed that but when we did we had success."
"We had a couple rough patches we'll have to look at on film," agreed Ludwig, "but good teams find a way to win."
Baldwin added 9 points for the Maroons, and 6-foot-6 sophomore Courtese Cooper continued to show promise with 6 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks.
"Courtese Cooper is definitely a silver lining right now," said Elgin coach Mike Sitter. "Offensively we looked a little better than we have lately. We had better movement away from the ball. But defensively, other than Cooper, I wasn't too pleased with anybody."