St. Charles East routs Streamwood
After experiencing a pair of heartbreaking defeats as well as a buzzer-beating victory the past three weekends, St. Charles East's boys basketball team enjoyed some breathing room Friday night.
Led by senior guard Zach Robinson's career-high 30 points, the Saints (11-7, 4-4) roared to a 75-43 Upstate Eight Conference River Division triumph over Streamwood (11-14, 0-8) in St. Charles.
"First of all, it's nice to see our team support each other and it's nice getting some other guys on the court," said Saints coach Patrick Woods, who emptied his bench early in the fourth quarter with the Saints leading 66-33.
Robinson caught fire with 13 first-quarter points and never cooled off as he made 10 of 13 shots from the field, including 8 of 10 from 3-point range.
"We shot a lot this week and my shot felt good," said Robinson.
Ironically, Robinson suffered a slight injury moments following the opening tip.
"On the first play of the game, I jammed my finger (right hand) going for the ball," said Robinson. "I was afraid to shoot the ball but my first one swished so I kept shooting. My teammates got me open, too."
"He was feeling it which is great for him," said Woods. "It's all about rhythm. That's what we are - we're a rhythm team. When we catch in rhythm, we can put a lot of points on the board."
Leading 21-17 after the opening quarter, the Saints outscored the Sabres 19-6 in the second quarter on their way to a 40-23 halftime advantage.
Junior guard Nate Ortiz tallied 9 of his 12 points in a second quarter that included 10-0 and 9-2 runs by the Saints as Streamwood missed its first 7 shots.
"We got into 1 on 1 stuff in the second quarter and they pulled away," said Sabres coach Paul Kowalyszyn. "Honestly, it was just lack of discipline on our part and St. Charles East is good."
Senior forward Justin Hardy finished with 14 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists while Cody Mitchell added 6 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals as the Saints recorded their second lopsided win over the Sabres this season (81-50 last month).
"We had tons of respect for them coming in," Woods said of the Sabres, who played St. Charles North tough in a 60-55 loss on Tuesday. "They have 11 wins this year and it's the most they've had since I've been here.
"We're hoping this is sort of a jump-start for us. This is only our second home conference game (of 8) this season."
Robinson punctuated his night with back-to-back 3-pointers off feeds from Hardy in the first minute of the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Aidan Sullivan (3 points, 5 rebounds) capped the night with a thunderous 2-hand dunk with 3:25 remaining.
"It's a great thing for a sophomore to go up and dunk like that," said Woods. "I'm hoping that's his coming-out party as far as what he's going to bring to the table in the future."
Junior Keenon Cole led Streamwood with 12 points.