Cooper Mellican sparks St. Charles North’s late surge past Wheaton North

ST. CHARLES – It was a case of mystery solved for St. Charles North‘s basketball team Friday night.

After committing 16 turnovers through the first three quarters against Wheaton North‘s relentless fullcourt pressure, the North Stars (2-3, 1-0) took better care of the basketball down the stretch, as they outscored the Falcons 22-13 in the decisive fourth quarter during their 52-43 DuKane Conference triumph in St. Charles.

With his team trailing 32-30 in the early stages of the final quarter, 6-foot-5 junior forward Cooper Mellican ignited a key 13-3 run by knocking down a 3-pointer from the corner to put the North Stars the lead for good at 33-32.

Mellican, who scored nine of his team’s points during the late surge, tallied a team-high 16 points with four rebounds and three blocked shots. All his points came in the second half when the North Stars outscored the Falcons, 33-21.

“I have to give all the credit to my teammates for picking me up,” said Mellican. “My body language wasn’t as good as it could have been (in the first half). At a free throw attempt, Cam (Vine) was like, ‘Coop, we need you to step up and take over,’ and I can say that I did that, so I have to give all the credit to my teammates and coaches.”

“He’s a player,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said of Mellican. “We took him out (in the first half) to get him refocused. I wanted him to make sure we took the right shot down the stretch — and he did.”

Henry Schlickman paced the Falcons (2-3, 0-1) with 15 points and seven rebounds, while Cal Mackey and Will Channing each added 12 points.

“I felt like we had trouble with their pressure the whole night, and it got the best of us in the fourth quarter,” said Falcons coach Dave Brackmann. “We were able to get enough stops in the first three quarters to kind of offset some of our offensive struggles, and then in the fourth (quarter), we didn’t get the stops.”

The North Stars received a boost off their bench in the final quarter, as juniors EJ Mondesir (five points, five rebounds), Braden Harms (two points, six assists, five rebounds), and Jake Love (five points, three rebounds) contributed key minutes.

“We saw that against Thornton at (Rockford) Boylan,” said Poulin. “That same group came in and changed the energy tonight. It wasn’t that we had bad energy — they just changed it and amped it up a little bit. I like the fact that it was a team win and they were happy for each other.”

Vine finished with nine points, while Colin Hopp added seven points and eight rebounds for the North Stars.

“They play together and they’re great teammates,” said Poulin.

In addition to their 14 turnovers and 30% field goal shooting, the Falcons were 12 of 22 from the free-throw line.

“You can’t win a road game in the DKC missing 10 free throws,” said Brackmann.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241206/boys-basketball/boys-basketball-st-charles-norths-late-surge-does-in-wheaton-north/