Late surge lifts North Stars past rival Saints

ST. CHARLES -- St. Charles East shut down St. Charles North's Josh Mikes, started hitting the boards harder and fought its way back into the lead down the stretch Friday night at the Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Invitational.

The one thing the Saints didn't do in their own holiday tourney was finish. North bounced back after watching a 32-19 second quarter lead dissolve into a four-point fourth quarter deficit, and won 58-51 behind a late spurt from Mikes and guards Chris Conrad and David Johnson.

"Coach (Tom Poulin) said they were going to make a run," said Conrad, who finished with a team-high 20 points "They didn't make a run until there was about three minutes left in the game.

"It was encouraging to see us come back and push through in the end."

East (0-3) went on a 17-6 run to start the fourth quarter and led 51-47 with 3 1/2 minutes to play, but then Johnson, who had 13 points and four assists, made two free throws and Mikes, the Stars' 6-foot-5 junior post star, re-appeared after being held to six points -- all in the first quarter.

Mikes sank a short banker to tie the score at 51 with 2:15 left, hit a go-ahead layup for a 53-51 lead and finally blocked a shot that wound up in the hands of teammate Kyle Nelson.

Nelson was fouled and made 1-of-2 free throws, so East needed a 3-pointer with 33 seconds to play to tie. But Charlie Fisher dribbled the ball off his foot and it went to Johnson, who was fouled and made two clinching foul shots with 14.9 seconds remaining to put the Stars in the third place game tonight at 6 against East Aurora (2-1).

"I'm disappointed," coach Brian Clodi said. "We worked hard to take a four-point lead and just don't finish.

"It was a great run, but we're challenging these guys and we're talking about no moral victories."

Guard Zack Burns led East with a game-high 21 points, but the Saints were severely hurt by poor 3-point shooting for the second straight game. They shot 5 of 23 and were only 2 of 13 (15.4 percent) from behind the arc in the first half.

"(Wednesday) night we were 0-for-14 in the first half from there and tonight 5-of-23. And that's got to be a strength for us," said Clodi.

North (2-1) outboarded East 38-30 and really took it to the Saints early in the game on the boards with a 12-5 first-quarter edge. Mikes finished with 12 rebounds.

"We got our hands on the ball and I thought we did a decent job on the boards -- it's like I said about Downers Grove when we played them, I don't think we're going to run away and hide," North coach Tom Poulin said.

"This group doesn't have all the varsity experience in the world compared to the teams on our schedule."

Mikes finished with 10 points. None of the Stars besides Conrad scored a field goal in the second half until Mikes' back-to-back baskets, but the Stars' biggest problem after taking a 32-19 lead was handling the ball. They made 10 third-quarter turnovers en route to 19 for the game.

"There were poor decisions that we made with the basketball," Poulin said. "We didn't take what they were giving us, plus they took it up a notch and really dug in defensively on us.

"You know they're going to fight until the end no mater who they play, let alone in a rivlary game. I think you have to credit the East kids for just wanting it more for a stretch there."

But not during the stretch that counted most -- the final three minutes.

East will play in the seventh-place game against St. Joseph at 2:30 p.m. Downers Grove South plays Proviso West at 4 p.m. for fifth place. The championship game at 7:45 pits Proviso East against Hales Franciscan.

St. Charles North 58, St. Charles East 51

St. Charles North (2-1)

Hedges 1 2-3 4, Conrad 6 7-10 20, Johnson 2 8-8 13, Blakeley 0 0-2 0, Mikes 5 0-2 10, Nelson 2 2-4 6, Bernthal 2 0-1 5. Totals 18 19-30 58.

St. Charles East (0-3)

Fisher 1 1-1 3, Motley 4 2-2 10, Barry 0 0-0 0, Burns 7 3-4 21, Vazquez 1 0-0 2, Stephens 1 0-0 3, Ditusa 1 0-1 2, Striedl 5 0-1 10. Totals 20 6-9 51.

St. Charles North 18 14 9 17 -- 58

St. Charles East 11 10 13 17 -- 51

3-point field goals: St. Charles North (3) -- Johnson 1, Conrad 1, Bernthal 1. St. Charles East (5) -- Burns 4, Stephens 1. Fouled out: St. Charles East --Barry, Vazquez.