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St. Charles East holds off pesky Glenbard North

It may have been a bit choppy at times but St. Charles East's basketball team began life in its new DuKane Conference with a 59-41 victory over Glenbard North Friday night in St. Charles.

One night after suffering a 77-60 defeat at the hands of perennial power Benet Academy, the Saints (4-2, 1-0) committed 13 turnovers during the first 12 minutes of play against the Panthers (1-3, 0-1) but still held a 21-17 lead at the time.

"What people have to remember is that we're still figuring things out," said Saints coach Patrick Woods, whose team finished with 21 turnovers. "Our decision making was poor. Yes, we want to play fast but we're not sharing the ball enough and we're not making the right reads. We have a lot of work we have to do."

The Saints built a 34-25 halftime advantage thanks in large part to the play of 6-foot-7 senior forward Cody Mitchell, who had 5 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocked shots and a pair of assists in the first 16 minutes.

"We were speeding ourselves up and taking some quick shots," said Mitchell. "A lot of that has to do with having a younger group. We were playing more individually than team (basketball) but we came together and that was good."

St. Charles East finally got some separation from the pesky Panthers with a 5-0 run over the final 1:40 of the third quarter that included a 3-pointer from junior guard Luke Matheny (11 points) and a driving layup by sophomore guard Tommy Craven (9 points).

Leading 49-36 after 3 quarters, the Saints finally pulled away with a 10-2 surge that was spearheaded by 3-pointers from Nate Ortiz (7 points) and Mark Musial (game-high 12 points) and 2 free throws from junior guard Zack Clodi (5 points).

"I'm definitely happy with the way we played tonight up until that run they had at the end of the third quarter," said Panthers coach Joe Larson. "If we make some more layups and shots that we had good looks on, it could have been a whole different game.

"I thought we sped them up quite a bit and turned them over in the first half. We just have to cash in more on the offensive end."

Jordan McQuarter led the Panthers with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals while junior teammate Michael Kloch added 10 points and 5 rebounds.

"We're getting better every game," said Larson. "We have a young team with a bunch of juniors and they took a step forward tonight but offensively and skill-wise, we need to get better to hang with teams that are this good offensively."

Mitchell finished with a career-high 19 rebounds for the Saints.

"We lost the rebound battle by a huge margin last night (against Benet)," said Mitchell. "That's my role so I made it a mission tonight."

"I thought Glenbard North did a great job of competing and staying with it," said Woods. "Every conference game is going to be a battle and we have to be ready for it."

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