St. Charles North stays perfect in DuKane

St. Charles North's basketball team prides itself on playing tough defense.

Thursday night provided a perfect example of the North Stars' defensive tenacity during their 58-35 DuKane Conference triumph over Glenbard North (4-12, 1-4) in Carol Stream.

While limiting the Panthers to just 1 basket during each of the second and third quarters, the North Stars (12-3, 5-0) opened a 29-15 halftime lead before stretching the margin to an insurmountable 25 points at 47-22 entering the final 8 minutes.

"That's where our focus was," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin, whose team kept an opponent under 50 points for the ninth time in 15 games - St. Charles North is 9-0 in those games. "We feel like we have enough pieces to find the way to score but the one thing we are consistently focused on is getting stops.

"I was proud of our defense tonight. We wanted to play better than we did last Saturday defensively (in a 55-48 win over Lake Park)."

Trailing 5-2 in the early going, the North Stars went on a 10-0 run to open an 18-10 first-quarter advantage.

The surge included 3-pointers from Thomas Kellen and Christian Czerniak (7 points, 4 assists), Connor Linke's 15-foot jump shot from the elbow, and Luke Scheffers' 12-foot bank off the backboard.

The North Stars carried their momentum into the second quarter, outscoring the Panthers 11-1 in the first 7 minutes while extending their lead to 29-11.

Linke, a 6-foot-9 senior center, and 6-7 sophomore forward Ethan Marlowe combined for 6 blocked shots as the North Stars locked down defensively.

"With those two guys in there, they protect the rim really well," said Poulin. "If we do have a breakdown, they're there helping out."

Panthers coach Joe Larson felt the game got away from his young squad early.

"They sped us up offensively in the first quarter," said Larson. "We weren't moving the basketball as well as did in our previous game against Naperville Central. When we sped it up, we took some shots that were not good ones."

While Scheffers turned in another solid effort with 12 points and 3 assists, it was the play of Linke that stood out.

The Bradley-bound big man filled virtually every statistical column, finishing with game highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds to go with 3 blocked shots, an assist and a steal.

He finished a perfect 9 of 9 from the field, including connecting on a pair of second-half 3-pointers.

"(The best part was) I went 100 percent from the field," said Linke. "I had a good feeling - everything seemed to go in."

"Connor has spent a lot of time working on it," Poulin said of his outside shooting. "That's nice because just the threat of him down there makes us all better. When we forget about him, our offense stalls. When we play through him or use him as a focal point offensively, it opens everything else up.'

Jacob Bonnema had 11 points for Glenbard North, which shot 25 percent (11 of 44) from the field.

"Offensively, we really struggled tonight," said Larson.