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St. Charles East shoots past Glenbard North in DuKane opener

Sean Sullivan gave all the credit to his teammates.

Coming off the bench and immediately seeing his first two 3-point shots hit nothing but net probably helped his confidence a little bit as well.

His impact aided a strong first quarter for St. Charles East in a 74-58 victory over Glenbard North in both teams' DuKane Conference opener.

Sullivan finished with a game-high 18 points, knocking down four 3-pointers on the night. His six points in the first quarter were part of a 29-point first eight minutes for the Saints (3-2, 1-0 DuKane Conference).

"I think we just moved the ball really well, our rotations were good and we made shots," said Sullivan, who finished 6-of-14 from the field. "My teammates were finding me and I was just letting it loose."

Though the Saints made five of their first six 3-pointers in the game, it was the defense that also aided an early lead. St. Charles East forced six turnovers and had a double-digit advantage just five minutes into the ballgame.

Scott Breidigan also made two 3-pointers off the bench in the first quarter for the Saints.

Glenbard North (0-4, 0-1) and coach Joe Larson thought they battled back and were competitive, but were never able to overcome the strong start from the Saints.

"The game was decided right there," Larson said. "We knew they had a number of guys who can score the ball. We were aware of it. We just have to do a better job at executing our game plan. (St. Charles East) is a very good team and they got on us early tonight."

St. Charles East's Thomas Ditsworth, who scored seven of his 15 points in that first quarter, said his team will take any win in conference, especially on the road.

Having been a part of a loss at Glenbard North a season ago, Ditsworth wanted to make sure his group kept its eyes on righting that wrong Friday night.

"I think all of us who were a part of that game (last year) had it in our minds," said Ditsworth, who also pulled down a game-high 9 rebounds. "There are no bad teams in our conference so any time you can come on the road and pick up a win is huge."

After taking an early 19-9 advantage, which forced a Glenbard North timeout with 3:10 left in the first quarter, St. Charles East never led by less than that margin the remainder of the contest.

Glenbard North did get the deficit to 11 at the beginning of the third quarter, but another 3-pointer by Sullivan aided a 6-0 run to push the lead back to 17.

Saints coach Pat Woods certainly knows his team can correct some mistakes, some of which he attributed to early-season mistakes. However, he was on board with getting off on the right foot in conference play.

"It's a great thing," Woods said. "In this conference, if you're not ready to play, anyone will beat you on any night. We're happy with the outcome, especially early in the conference schedule. I think this group has a lot of potential, but we'll enjoy this one and get back to work with a couple more games next week."

Jake Bonnema paced the Panthers with 14 points off the bench.

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