St. Charles North holds off Streamwood in 2 OTs

All Friday night, the St. Charles North boys basketball team scratched and clawed just to push its game at Streamwood to a first overtime, and then a second.

That perseverance - which included surviving a fourth-quarter fire alarm that cleared the gym for 12 minutes - finally paid in the second extra frame, as the North Stars exploded with a 12-1 run that led to a 69-61 Upstate Eight River victory, their third in a row.

"Our kids battled down the stretch," said North coach Tom Poulin, whose squad improved to 6-13 and 3-7 in the league. "It was just a weird game from the get-go, just everything that was happening, as far as calls, the fire alarm, but we'll take it. It's a conference win on the road and those are hard to get."

It was fitting that the final game-winning push was led off by a layup from junior forward Griffin Hammer, and following a basket by senior Jarod Karom, a dunk. Hammer led all scorers with 26 points, most of them no-footers down low.

"Props to our team for persevering, just keep sticking with it," Hammer said. "It's not what we wanted, but a win's a win, and we'll take it."

After Streamwood sophomore Brendon Marton sank a free throw with 1:04 left in the second OT, Karom then went to the line 6 times in the next 41 seconds and made them all, pushing North's lead to 69-58. The best the Sabres could do in the final 23.3 seconds was 3 freebies by senior guard Joey O'Halloran, who led Streamwood with 25 points and sank six 3-pointers.

Free throws were a major issue for the Sabres Friday, as they shot just 41 percent (12-for-29). Meanwhile, North shot 89 percent from the charity stripe (17-for-19), including all 8 shots in the overtime periods.

"It was fun to be part of a double-overtime game, and frustrating for other reasons," said Streamwood coach Paul Kowalyszyn, whose team fell to 4-22 and 1-10 in the UEC River. "Obviously, North executed down the stretch, but our free throw shooting was horrendous, and ultimately that was the game."

Streamwood was in control early in the fourth quarter, using a 10-0 run - interrupted by the fire alarm delay - to pull ahead 40-36 with 1:36 to go.

But the North Stars righted themselves with a 3-pointer by senior Armon Osborne with 49 seconds left and another by senior guard Michael Schroeder at 23 seconds. Schroeder also made the free throw with 10.9 seconds left knotted the game at 49-49 and sent it to the first overtime.