Hernandez, Glenbard North hold on vs. St. Charles North

After having earned its fourth win in their last six games by beating Hoffman Estates at home Tuesday, Glenbard North coach Kevin Tonn stood in his office outside their home court at Neal Hudson Gymnasium and spoke of his team's recent successes which included splitting its four games at York's Jack Tosh Holiday Classic.

"That experience is huge. Good for us going into the second round of conference (play). In a basketball season when we play so many games in so little time with an inexperienced and young group like we have," Tonn said. "That's what we try to preach is like (a) growth mindset, next play mentality. You got to learn from it. There's no losses, there's learning opportunities is how we look at it. We want to play hard every single day. Play hard and get better. Those are our two goals."

Thanks to its ability to successfully learn how to both navigate and negotiate through proverbial rough waters the Panthers held off a gritty, gutsy St. Charles North unit 43-38 Saturday evening in Carol Stream. Glenbard North evened its DuKane Conference mark at 3-3 and moved to 10-6 overall, now 5-2 in its last seven games.

The Panthers picked up that win despite going 0-for-8 shooting from the floor in the fourth quarter.

However, junior Glenbard North swingman J.J. Hernandez kept the visitors at bay by going 6-for-7 at the charity stripe in the final 2:30 to preserve the win for the home team.

He talked about how a late timeout called by his coach when the North Stars (2-12, 0-6) tallied the first 9 points of the final stanza to pull within 37-36 on a Colin Ross putback with 4:31 remaining.

"He got us together to make sure that we were still (mentally) in the game," Hernandez said. "(He) just drew up what we needed to do and (we) just executed. That's it and we were able to close (it) out."

The 6-6 Hernandez led the way with a game-high 19 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks which featured 3 in the final frame.

Six-3 junior forward Parker Reinke's 11 points led St. Charles North's valiant effort followed by senior center Steven Litteral's 8.

"I think we had some breakdowns in our rotations defensively and we had too many turnovers (19)," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "Couple that with second chance points that Glenbard North went and earned and outfought us to go get. We need to do a better job on the defensive glass, better on the rotations which we're getting better at."

Poulin also spoke proudly of the way his team battled as it entered the fourth trailing 37-27.

"We're getting better," Poulin said. "We had a good week of practice and I'm proud of the guys for coming out here and fighting and making this a ballgame 'til the end. We're going to get over the hump."