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St. Charles North falls to Rock Island

St. Charles North boys basketball coach Tom Poulin admitted he may have waited a bit too long to switch defenses.

Rock Island put up 34 first half points on 50 percent shooting and held a 9-point cushion as the North Stars primarily played a 2-1-2 zone.

St. Charles North clamped down in its customary man defense in the second half and limited the Rocks to just 7 field goals.

Despite a strong surge over the final 12 minutes, the North Stars came up short in a 54-50 decision Saturday at Kaneland's Day and Knight of Basketball in Maple Park.

Griffin Hammer and Kyle King collected 16 and 15 points, respectively, to pace St. Charles North (6-14), which saw its three-game winning streak snapped.

Rock Island senior guard C.J. Neville, coming off a 32-point performance in Friday night's victory over Rock Island Alleman, led all scorers with 22 points.

"I'm kind of kicking myself a little bit because maybe if we would have just gone man and dug in right away like we like to do, we may have been better off," Poulin said.

"Man was a little easier because they were quick on their rotations from zone," King said. "In man we were able to rotate and gap cover which was good to help slow (Neville) up too."

Rock Island (16-6) was on the verge of pulling away midway through the third when Jay Richardson's 3-pointer extended the lead to 43-30.

St. Charles North answered with a 10-3 run to close out the quarter, highlighted by a steal and slam from Hammer and Jarod Karom's long 3-pointer.

Hammer completed a conventional 3-point play on a nice feed from King and King dropped in a pair of free throws to close within 50-45 with just under 5 minutes remaining.

As an added bonus, Rocks' 6-foot-8 forward William Miles, who collected 10 rebounds and 5 blocks, fouled out on the play.

However, the North Stars failed to capitalize on numerous chances on the offensive end and Neville's key steal and hoop with 1:20 left extended the Rocks' lead to 53-46.

"We thought we could come all the way back and gave it our all, but they're a good team," King said. "We made some mistakes at he end that didn't help."

"We can play smarter and take care of the basketball a little bit better down the stretch, and we will going forward because of this experience," Poulin said.

Neville hit a trio of 3-pointers as part of a 12-point opening quarter for the Rocks, but Armon Osborne answered with three 3-pointers off the bench to keep the North Stars within 19-17.

Sophomore Lacey Watson tallied 9 of his 11 points in the second quarter, as the Rocks finished the half on an 8-2 run.

Mikey Schroeder added 7 points and 6 rebounds for St. Charles North.

"I was proud of our kids and the fight we showed and how competitive we were possession by possession," Poulin said. "We're playing good basketball now at the right time of the year."

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