St. Charles North downs Larkin to keep pace
St. Charles North boys basketball coach Tom Poulin said he considered Friday's Upstate Eight River matchup at Larkin the first of four conference championship games his team will play down the stretch.
Trailing UEC River-leading Geneva by a game with four to play, the North Stars competed like contenders from the opening tip of their 61-53 victory over the Royals.
St. Charles North (15-7, 9-2) used defense and rebounding to ignite its fast break during an 18-4 onslaught to open the game. Larkin (15-8, 7-5) recovered and trimmed the deficit to 3 points with 3:12 left in the fourth quarter, but the North Stars never let the Royals over the hump.
"I think we came out fast and caught them by surprise in the first," said 6-foot-5 St. Charles North sophomore Griffin Hammer, who came off the bench to score 14 points and grab 5 rebounds. "We didn't think it was going to be easy here at Larkin. It's always a hard game. They gave us a run at the end, but we ended up on top."
The victory keeps St. Charles North within a game of first-place Geneva (23-2, 10-1), which defeated Streamwood 57-38 on Friday. If the North Stars can knock off visiting Geneva on Tuesday, it would create a three-way logjam atop the standings with St. Charles East (19-3, 10-2) with 2 division games to play.
"We know we need to get every conference win if we want to get a conference title," said St. Charles North senior Jack Callaghan, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds. "Now we're on to the next game, which is Geneva, and we're really excited to play them."
St. Charles North opened the game by hitting 9 of its first 10 shots against a Larkin Senior Night lineup that did not include sophomore star Christian Negron. That shouldn't have mattered, according to Larkin's coach.
"We're not going to put you in the jersey if we don't trust you, and we're not going to put you on the court unless we think you can do positive things," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "Regardless of who started, guys just needed to play a little bit better to start the game."
The North Stars led 25-8 after the first eight minutes, but they scored only 2 points in the second quarter until Callaghan banked home a 3-pointer before the halftime buzzer for a 30-19 advantage. The Royals committed 14 of their 22 turnovers in the first half.
Trailing 45-32 early in the fourth quarter, Larkin made its move with a 12-2 run, which included a 3-pointer and a putback from junior guard Keion Adams. The Royals drew within 47-44 on a drive and scoop layup by junior guard AJ Hunter with 3:12 to play.
However, St. Charles North guard Michael Schroeder, who led all scorers with 15 points, responded with a turnaround jumpshot. After Adams split 2 free throws at the other end, guard Jake Ludwig raced upcourt and found Callaghan open in the right corner for a 3-pointer that re-established a 7-point North Stars lead with 1:52 remaining.
Though the comeback fell short, Carter preferred to see the glass half full.
"Overall, I told our guys I'm not happy with losing but the ultimate goal is leaving the gym a better team and I think we're doing that tonight because we stuck together," he said ."We fought back and made a game of it, where earlier in the year we wouldn't have done that."
Meanwhile, the North Stars turned their attention to Tuesday's showdown with the Vikings.
"You have to respect them and how well they're coached and their size," Poulin said of Geneva. "We need to play the game at our tempo and we need to play better than we did tonight, but this allows us to have a second conference championship game against Geneva on Tuesday night."
Negron led the Royals with 14 points and 8 rebounds, Daniel McFadden contributed 7 points and 11 rebounds and junior guard D'Montrelle Mardis finished with 12 points and 3 assists.