Revenge sweet for North Stars

The St. Charles North boys basketball team celebrates as Jonathan DeMoss holds up a champion plaque after they beat South Elgin Friday night for the Class 4A DeKalb Regional title.
(Michael Smart / Staff Photographer)

Font Size

Email

Bookmark

Black Text

White Text

DEKALB -- South Elgin ruined St. Charles North's senior night, but St. Charles North ended South Elgin's season.

The North Stars used a perceived insult by South Elgin's Jordan Dobler following the Storm's regular season win Feb. 20 as inspiration, but there was more to the North Stars' 60-42 triumph Friday in the championship game of the DeKalb Class 4A Regional than a simple case of revenge.

A lot more. There was complete domination.

"They worked harder than us the first game -- plain and simple," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "So we wanted to come in today and make sure we were the hardest-working team in the gym."

It was never a game, as the North Stars avenged their 70-64 home-court loss on senior night for their first regional title since 2005, earning the right to face Rockford Auburn in next week's Elgin Class 4A Sectional.

"We had it on our scouting report, Jordan Dobler saying, 'We love ruining peoples' senior nights,' " said St. Charles North's Jonathan DeMoss. "We definitely talked about that and what happened in that first game."

DeMoss scored a game-high 21 points, including 7-for-10 from the field, guard Nick Neari contributed 14 points, and center Mike Kastel led North with 14 rebounds.

St. Charles North (21-9) out-rebounded South Elgin 38-15 and shot 66 percent from the field (20-of-30) to the Storm's 28 percent (14-of-50).

"We figured if we could jump out to a lead, we could go to our zone and it worked out," Poulin said.

The North Stars' defense proved the critical factor at the outset. They started man-to-man but quickly went to a 1-3-1 zone that gave South Elgin fits.

"They really just dribbled around us all game when we played them a few weeks ago, and I feel like having (6-foot-4) Zach (Hirsch) in the middle, we just stopped that," DeMoss said. "We talked a lot more on defense than we did a few weeks ago.

"From the get-go, everybody was talking and communicating on the defensive end."

South Elgin missed its first nine shots from the field and trailed 13-1 after one quarter. After that, the Storm never got closer than nine, at 25-16 in the second quarter.

"We weren't ready to play from the start," said South Elgin's Tommy Childs.

The Stars held Dobler, the Storm's scoring leader, to two points. Childs scored 20 points coming off the bench, but South Elgin's starters totaled only 17 points.

Three-point threat Kyle Osborne, who had six treys in a semifinal win over DeKalb on Wednesday, failed to score until just under five minutes remained in the game.

"(Childs) did a great job coming off the bench for us," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "He gave us 20 points when we needed a spark, but we needed everybody to chip in for a whole team effort."

South Elgin, which played without injured 6-foot-9 center Dani Lopez, finished 19-9.

"We're three years old," Taft said about the school. "Each year we've got to the playoffs, we've stepped up and advanced one more game. That's our goal for next year."

After the game, a scary moment occurred in the South Elgin locker room when a freshman, who had been watching the game, suffered what was reported as a seizure. But medical officials quickly came to the boy's aid.

BOX SCORE