St. Charles East Nails 16 Threes In a Huge Win Against Cross-Town Rival North

What began as a ripple of momentum for St. Charles East to start Saturday’s game against crosstown rival St. Charles North quickly turned into a tsunami.

The points — including 16 three-pointers — just kept coming in waves for the Saints, who avenged an earlier loss by destroying the North Stars 90-55 in Upstate Eight River Division action.

Dom Adduci led the Saints’ three-point assault with five and finished with a game-high 23 points. Zach Manibog came off the bench to get in the act with 14 points, including four threes. Jake Asquini had three treys. In all, six Saints knocked down shots from beyond the arc and 11 scored.

“We have a lot of kids who can shoot the ball,” East coach Patrick Woods said. “The key is ball movement, and I would have to attribute our success tonight to doing a great job of sharing the ball and finding the open shots. That basket just seemed to get bigger and bigger as our confidence kept growing.”

The Saints (11-7, 5-2) scored the first nine points of the game and led 25-8 after shooting 10-of-16 (63 percent) from the field in the first quarter. Adduci set the pace with three three-pointers in the first quarter.

“It’s amazing how we just came out and took complete control of the game,” Adduci said. “We were fired up and wanted revenge from the last time. The shots were falling. I know I am feeling really confident in with my shooting right now and feel like I can knock down shots from any where on the floor.”

Adduci finished the first half with 18 points and the Saints extended their lead to 50-22 at the intermission. There wasn’t much letup in the second half. In fact, East connected on 9-of-13 (69 percent) three-point attempts over the final two quarters.

The Saints led by as many as 39. In stark contrast, the North Stars started ice cold, missing on their first nine threes and shooting just 6-of-20 (30 percent) from the field in the first half.

“East deserves all the credit in the world,” North coach Tom Poulin said. “They have some great shooters and we didn’t do a very good job of stopping them. We let the ball get into the high post way too much and they broke down our defense with their penetration.”

North (12-6, 5-2) falls into a second-place tie with East in the UEC River Division race. Both are two games behind Larkin. Jake Ludwig had 12 points to lead the North Stars in scoring.

Courtesy of Chicago Sun-Times.