Wheaton North eases past ice-cold St. Charles North

It was far from a masterpiece of offensive showpieces in a boys basketball game.

But Wheaton North prevailed in the end, 39-25, over St. Charles North in the schools' first DuKane Conference encounter.

"We came in with an offensive mindset that we would play smooth, fluent and make a bunch of shots," said Wheaton North senior guard Jacob Schauer, who finished with 12 points. "That really didn't happen."

Schauer drained a 3-pointer in the waning seconds of the second quarter to give the Falcons a football-like lead of 14-13 at halftime.

"To have the lead at that point - at the end of the first half - was huge for us," Schauer said.

But it was an even more nightmarish offensive performance for the host North Stars Friday night.

Lucas Heflen connected on two 3-pointers for the North Stars in the second quarter.

It was the only 6 points St. Charles North could manage in the period.

But it was even worse for St. Charles North (2-3, 0-1) in the third quarter when Tyler Cqzerniak had an inside score for its only points of the quarter.

St. Charles North finished the game 3 for 28 from the 3-point line.

The North Stars did not even attempt a free throw until Luke Scheffers' successful completion of both ends of a one-and-one with two minutes, 55 seconds to play in the game.

Basketball can be the most beguiling of sports, especially if you are the head coach.

"We didn't shoot well, but that's not the reason why we lost the game," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "We turned the ball over 16 times. Our execution and application of the game plan was nonexistent. Nonexistent. We're better than that."

Wheaton North (2-3, 1-0) built a commanding 25-15 lead heading into the fourth quarter after holding the North Stars to the lone Czerniak conventional field goal.

The Falcons' Deng Reng had an unmistakable presence in the in their first double-digit lead of the game.

The 6-foot-8 senior, who led all players with 15 points, scored 6 points in the quarter.

"We started off (the game) really slow," Reng said. "None of the shots were falling. We fought through that and just picked it up. We didn't want to let up."

Wheaton North, which endured a collective 10-for-33 performance from the field in the opening three quarters, hoisted up only 4 shots from the floor in the fourth quarter as the North Stars were forced to foul.

The final score was the largest Wheaton North spread of the night.

Scheffers (7 points), Czerniak (6), Connor Linke (6) and Heflen (6) were the only players to score for St. Charles North.