Boys Basketball: St Charles North holds off Larkin

Updated: January 25, 2012 12:33AM

Stuck in neutral for much of the season, St. Charles North is hoping Tuesday’s performance against visiting Larkin is a sign it is ready to kick into overdrive.

The North Stars showed no ill effects from a 10-day layoff as they came out firing on all cylinders and got contributions from up and down the lineup in a 67-58 Upstate Eight River victory. The triumph avenged a loss to the Royals last month and also ended Larkin’s three-game winning streak.

Five players tallied at least eight points for St. Charles North (8-12, 4-2). Leading the way was senior center Kyle Nelson with 19 points and 10 rebounds.

“This was a total team win, and one we needed,” Nelson said. “We’re still in the race for conference, but we’ve just got to keep winning. If we put things together one win at a time, maybe we can get the snowball rolling.”

Larkin (11-7, 3-4) didn’t helps its cause by going 11-for-25 from the free-throw line on a night filled with missed opportunities.

North Stars standout Quinten Payne went to the bench with two fouls in the first quarter and didn’t return until after halftime, but the Royals couldn’t take advantage as St. Charles North scored the final nine points of the second quarter to take a 31-24 lead into the break.

Larkin’s deficit grew as large as 10 in the third quarter, but it managed to claw back within one on two occasions, with the last coming on Quinten Ruff’s bucket with 4:56 left in the fourth that sliced St. Charles North’s lead to 51-50.

Payne quickly answered 14 seconds later with a basket of his own, and a Nelson bucket and a Payne three-pointer on the next two possessions made for a 7-0 run as St. Charles North pushed its lead back to 58-50 with 3:37 left. The Royals made only 4-of-11 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

“We just didn’t make enough good decisions and we just didn’t execute well enough, and you can’t do that on the road in this league against a team of this caliber,” Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. “On one side of the coin we were lucky to be in the game. On the other side of the coin we were lucky not to lose by 20.”

Ruff finished with 14 points and Quantice Hunter added 13 points, 10 rebounds and three steals for Larkin.

Michael Schroeder made three big three-pointers and had 13 points for St. Charles North. Payne and Kyle Swanson both finished with 11 points and Jason Weinzirl chipped in eight points off the bench.

“Larkin is as good as anybody we’ve seen, so for us to be able to defend our home court (was good),” St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. “We made some runs and we kept their runs short. We’re taking steps in a positive direction and this really demonstrates that.”

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