Wheaton North surprises St. Charles North

ST. CHARLES – Wheaton North seniors Sara Abdul and Brigitte Noyes combined for 35 points as the Falcons (11-11, 4-4) upset St. Charles North (19-5, 5-3) in a DuKane Conference road game 38-31 Thursday night.

“We were pretty upset that we lost the first time and that gave us a lot of good motivation as a team,” said Abdul, remembering a 53-27 loss to the North Stars in the first matchup between these squads on Dec. 7.

It was a back and forth affair Thursday, as Abdul and Noyes battled to keep pace with St. Charles North sophomores Lelanie Posada and Bronwyn How, who combined for 16 points.

The Falcons leaned on Noyes as she fought inside throughout the first half to help give her team a 16-13 lead at the intermission.

“We’ve been working pretty hard to get to where we’re at,” said Noyes, who finished the night with 20 points. “We’ve had a pretty good winning streak [recently].”

The Falcons started their season with only one win in their first 10 games; however, they have been storming back up the conference standings as of late. They have now won nine of their past 11 games.

“We switched defenses this year,” said Wheaton North coach Tyler Bantz. “We took some time to figure out the in’s-and-out’s of it, which is why we had some struggles at the beginning of the year.”

That defense showed up tonight, as it kept St. Charles North quiet from behind the arc as the North Stars fought through another difficult night of shooting.

“At this point? We’ve been in an extended shooting slump,” said North Stars coach Mike Tomczak. “This is the fourth game in a row where we were 0 for a million from the outside. And that’s gotta change.”

Despite their woes, St. Charles North eventually took a 17-16 lead on a layup from senior Hannah Ganser with 5:50 to play in the third. It was their first lead since the first quarter.

Posada went on to connect from long range a minute later to briefly give the North Stars a 22-17 advantage a few possessions later. She finished the night with 9 points.

“In a close game with two solid teams, the game can be won or lost in a one or two minute stretch,” Tomczak added. “I thought we put a good push in at the beginning of the third quarter, but we did not close the quarter the way we should’ve.”

Noyes was quick to take advantage, as she dominated the boards and consistently put back big bucket after big bucket to keep pace with the North Stars to close the third.

“[Brigitte has] really stepped up towards the second half of our season,” said Abdul. “It’s pretty nice having a post player that can just finish a lot of things.”

It was Abdul who took over late, as the Falcons’ playmaker closed the game with 6 fourth quarter points while consistently finding Noyes on the inside. She also nailed a big three-point shot down the stretch on her way to a 15-point evening.

“She’s the most skilled player that I’ve coached,” said Bantz. “She can make plays that other people just can’t. She can see the floor better than anybody.”

With the duo of Abdul and Noyes leading the way, the Falcons feel that the sky’s the limit after this win.

“A lot of teams were looking down on us,” added a grinning Abdul. “All the other teams should be afraid now. We can beat anyone in our conference. I think this win really helped give us that confidence.”

St. Charles North