St. Charles East loosens up, gets back on track

On the heels of a tough 75-63 road loss to Geneva, St. Charles East's basketball team spent one day of practice without even touching a basketball this past week while preparing for Friday night's game against West Chicago.

The strategy seemed to work wonders as the Saints (19-3, 10-2) burst out to a 32-11 first-quarter lead and posted a 50-point opening half on the way to an 87-56 Upstate Eight Conference River Division triumph over the host Wildcats.

"A lot of practice, a little fun and more practice," Saints coach Patrick Woods said when asked how his team spent the 8-day layoff.

As for the fun part ...

"At this point of the year, you've got to have some fun," added Woods. "The guys played dodgeball, followed up with a wiffle ball game, a volleyball game and ended with a football game. That was our practice on Tuesday.

"We had a great time. I think that was probably their favorite day of practice this season."

The Saints made quick work of things against the Wildcats (5-15, 3-9) as 6-5 senior forward Mick Vyzral put on a shooting display during his 18-point first-quarter barrage.

Vyzral canned his first 4 field-goal attempts - 3 of them coming from beyond the 3-point arc - while lifting the Saints to a 15-4 lead in the first 3 minutes.

"We just wanted to come out with a lot of energy and set the tone early," said Vyzral, who poured in 15 points during a 3-minute, 34-second stretch in the opening period.

Vyzral made 7 of his 9 first-quarter shots, including four 3-pointers, as the Saints cruised to a 21-point advantage.

"It's like shooting a beach ball in the ocean," Vyzral said of his hot hand. "It was crazy. My teammates found me and I hit some shots."

"I think he's probably in our top three or four in 3-point shooting percentage and he takes a bunch of them," Woods said of Vyzral. "He probably took two bad shots but I'm not going to be mad at a kid like that. When you've hit your first four, you can pretty much get over half-court and throw something up and I probably won't yell at you."

Senior guard Cole Gentry (12 points, 6 assists, 4 steals) and junior guard Evan DiLeonardi (13 points, 5 rebounds) combined for 14 second-quarter points as the Saints built a commanding 50-21 halftime lead.

St. Charles East, which led 69-30 after 3 quarters, also received contributions from senior center Jack Bronec (6 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocked shots), senior guards Jake Asquini (6 points) and Jeremy Champine (5 points, 3 assists), junior guard J.T. Ford (5 points), junior forward Zach Hondlik (5 points) and senior forward Cam Miller (4 points, 3 blocked shots).

"We didn't want to be surprised on their home court," said Woods. "We talked about not taking this game lightly."

Seven different Saints players combined for 11 3-point baskets.

"We've played a few teams that could light it up from 3-point range but not as consistently as they do," West Chicago senior Alex Mitchell said of the Saints.

Mike Bibbs scored 14 points for the Wildcats, who suffered their eighth loss in 9 games.

"Coach (Bill Recchia) talked to us about how we need to go full speed when we do our shooting drills in practice because obviously that's what they've (the Saints) been doing," added Mitchell. "We need to raise the intensity level to match our opponents."