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St. Charles North goes inside to top South Elgin

St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said he spent the last few practices reminding his players to get the basketball inside to 6-foot-9 senior Connor Linke from the start.

The North Stars obliged in a 54-40 Class 4A Elgin regional semifinal win over South Elgin Tuesday.

The future Bradley Brave touched the ball on nearly every first-quarter possession. He scored 8 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in the first eight minutes to propel the North Stars to a 15-6 lead.

Linke enjoyed a five-inch advantage over South Elgin's tallest player, thus his teammates fed him in the post with lob passes throughout. He finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks.

"We'd be foolish not to play through him," Poulin said. "If you want to win, throw it inside and play from there. It's not like he's a black hole. He shares the basketball and he's unselfish."

Linke contributed 3 assists. That total could have been higher had his teammates hit a few more shots, though the North Stars sank 16 of 26 from the field as it was.

"If I'm catching it, I'm normally skipping to guys in the corner for threes," Linke said. "That's how we win games."

No. 2 St. Charles North (22-9) led No. 6 South Elgin (13-20) by 15 points at halftime, extended the lead to 20 and maintained at least a 12-point cushion throughout the fourth quarter.

North advances to play No. 3 St. Charles East (24-7) in the Elgin regional title game on Friday at 7 p.m. The Saints defeated No. 5 Streamwood in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader at Elgin. St. Charles North won both regular-season meetings between the DuKane Conference co-champions.

The North Stars can win back-to-back regional titles for the first time in program history with a third victory over the rival Saints.

Said Linke: "We want to leave a legacy here at North. That is definitely a way to do it."

South Elgin cut a 20-point deficit to 12 on three fourth-quarter occasions. Errant shooting short-circuited the comeback. The Storm shot 15 of 39 from the field (38.5%). From 3-point range they missed 14 of 15 overall, including all 7 second-half attempts.

"We just couldn't make any shots in that third and fourth quarter to push that lead down." Storm coach Brett Johnson said. "I think we would have erupted if we had made one or two of those threes and gotten in to six or seven (points). The ball doesn't go in sometimes."

Junior Dylan Marquis led South Elgin with 8 points and 5 rebounds. All Upstate Eight Conference honoree Lane McVicar and fellow sophomore Drew Cwik each scored 7 points.

Senior guard Colin Nelson scored 9 points and senior guard Luke Scheffers had 8 points for the North Stars.

St. Charles North Max Love finished with 6 points in his return. He sank a pair of 3-pointers right before halftime, both assisted by senior guard Christian Czerniak. The 6-foot-4 sophomore had missed 11 straight games with a torn elbow ligament, his coach said.

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