St. Charles East storms back from 11-point deficit in fourth quarter to secure victory over St. Charles North

ST. CHARLES — St. Charles East freshman Kathlyn Bainbridge only needed one shot to be a hero.

With the Saints trailing 48-47 against St. Charles North with 30 seconds left in the game, the freshman had a chance to give her team the lead with a corner 3-pointer.

The only problem? She missed it.

So when she got a second chance at the go-ahead shot from 3 just 12 seconds later, she knew she had to convert.

This time? Swish.

“Coach was talking to us about mentally having that confidence and just knowing the ball is going in,” Bainbridge said. “During warm ups, I was feeling good, so I just remembered that mentality. And when I caught the ball, I just shot it.”

Bainbridge’s 3-pointer completed a major comeback for the Saints, as they stormed back from an 11-point deficit earlier in the quarter to take down the North Stars 53-49 on Friday night.

“This team showed so much grit, especially in the second half,” head coach Katie Claussner said. “We just locked in mentally. We all took two calm breaths in the timeout heading into the fourth quarter, and we came together, got turnovers and made those key shots.”

After trailing 46-35 midway through the fourth quarter, St. Charles East (21-6 overall, 11-0 conference) managed to flip the momentum quickly in their favor thanks to a full-court press, which allowed the Saints to get multiple key turnovers.

The change in pace, along with some key shots from seniors Sofia O’Sullivan (20 points) and Corrine Reed (16 points), allowed the Saints to go on a 12-1 run down the stretch, with Reed hitting a 3-pointer to tie the game at 47-47 with 57.2 seconds left before Bainbridge’s go-ahead shot.

“That’s just our team for you. We’re built off of energy,” said Reed, who had 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter. “As long as I’m going, the team’s going too. We put energy into everything we do. We knew we had to lock in on defense, and then we came out intensively on offense. And that’s what pushed us towards the end.”

Before the game, the two programs celebrated 50 years of women’s sports being played in St. Charles, with former athletes dating all the way back to the graduate class of 1975 being honored for paving the way female athletes to play.

And with St. Charles East moving just one win away from their first-ever DuKane Conference title, Claussner is hoping that her team can add on to that long-standing legacy.

“We told our girls that we’re building our own legacy,” said Claussner, who graduated from East back in 2015. “As far as I know, this team hasn’t won a conference championship within the last 15 years. I told the girls, and they have fully bought in to that fact, and we are building our own legacy.

“We’re a part of something so much bigger thanks to the ladies from 50 years ago from saying they want to play. But we’re building on that and making our own legacy.”

Despite the loss, St. Charles North (20-6, 6-4) did not make it easy for their crosstown rivals. The North Stars went 13 of 18 from behind the arc in the contest. The only two-point shot the North Stars converted in the game came with 3:38 left in the third quarter on a layup from sophomore Bronwyn How.

“We were due for a night like this,” St. Charles North coach Mike Tomczak said. “We had about a two-week stretch where we couldn’t throw one in the ocean, so law of averages said we had to come back. But we had a couple kids shooting the ball with confidence, and those are things that we are encouraging our kids to do is play with confidence and play our game.”

A key contributor to the flurry of North Star 3s was sophomore Lelanie Posada, who had six shots go in from beyond the arc, including a buzzer-beating half-court shot to end the third quarter, to help her to a team-high 19 points. Junior Sydney Johnson also added 16 points off of five 3s in the contest.

“I thought this was her (Posada’s) best game of the season,” Tomczak said. “She was controlling the game for three and a half quarters. She had full control over the things we were doing offensively, and she played with confidence. Hopefully this is a step forward for her.”