Sophomore forward Brooklyn Schilb scored 5 of her game-high 15 points in the final minute, including the go-ahead three-point play with 46 seconds remaining, to help lead St. Charles East’s girls basketball team to a 38-33 DuKane Conference triumph over St. Charles North on Friday night.

With the victory, the defending conference champion Saints (7-2, 4-0) extended their DuKane winning streak to 18 games.

“We talked about championship mentality and keeping our composure, and this game, we really did that,” said Schilb, who added a game-high 12 rebounds and a pair of steals.

Her coach agreed.

“In conference, we really want to show what we’re made of,” Saints coach Katie Claussner said. “We want to show that last year wasn’t a fluke (14-0 DuKane record).”

Entering the game unbeaten, the North Stars (9-1, 3-1) jumped out to an early 6-0 lead before the Saints charged back to tie the score at 10-10 after one quarter.

The score remained deadlocked at 16-16 at the half, and was still tied at 22-22 midway through the third quarter.

After the teams misfired on their first 21 shots from beyond the arc, freshman guard Greta Mazurova knocked the game’s first 3-pointer to give the Saints their first lead at 25-22 with 1:55 left in the third quarter.

“That’s the second time in as many years that a freshman knocked down a three against North,” Claussner said.

The lead changed hands three times early in the fourth quarter, with Brianna Buono giving the North Stars a 33-32 lead on a basket with 3:54 remaining.

Schilb’s off-balance, three-point play followed a little more than 3 minutes later.

“Throughout the game, I kind of had a hard time, but I knew my team relied on me and I needed to step up in the moment,” Schilb said. “I had a great pass in, and I was given the ability to get that shot, so I knocked it down.”

Junior Stella Trask chipped in with 11 points for the Saints, while Addie Schilb added seven points and five rebounds.

“Stella played a fantastic game,” Claussner said. “I saw her confidence skyrocket this game. I hope she continues to build off that.”

Kathlyn Bainbridge (nine rebounds), Mazurova (five rebounds), and Ari Bigda (two points, four rebounds) helped the Saints to a 42-23 rebounding edge.

“We focus on crashing the boards because this season, we haven’t been hot from outside,” Claussnersaid. “That’s how we get a lot of our points — on second looks.”

Sophomore forward Bronwyn How led the North Stars with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Riley Barber added 9 points.

Neither team shot well from 3-point range, as North finished 1-of-18, while East was 1-of-13.

“Do you whine or cry about not making threes or do you just get back to work?” North Stars coach Grant Oler said. “You have to believe that the next one is going in. There’s a lot of great shooters in that locker room — I’m going to tell them to shoot the next one.

“It’s never fun to lose a DuKane game, but you learn more from your losses than do from your wins.”

In the boys game, St. Charles North (3-6, 2-2) stormed out to a 20-0 lead in the first 5-plus minutes during its 60-46 DuKane Conference victory over host St. Charles East (1-7, 0-4).

Senior Besnik Memedowski, who finished with a game-high 15 points, connected on his first three 3-point attempts during North’s 20-point blitz to start the contest.

“They were locked in from the second we got off the bus,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said of his team. “We talked about relentless, competitive effort. We knew St. Charles East was going to come out and attack the zone.

“We knew what we could take care of — our intensity and it certainly paid off.”

The North Stars also received solid contributions from EJ Mondesir (12 points), Jake Love (10 points, six rebounds), Braden Harms (nine points, eight rebounds, five assists), and Cooper Mellican (nine points, seven rebounds).

“To be competitive, we need to share the basketball and get ourselves high percentage shots,” said Poulin.

Despite digging itself a huge hole, St. Charles East continued to battle, pulling within seven early in the second quarter on a 3-pointer by Peyton Faidley (eight points) and again on a pair of occasions in the fourth quarter — the last at 44-37 on Chris Dazzo’s putback with 5:20 remaining.

From there, the North Stars closed out the game with a 16-9 run.

“We didn’t hesitate when they (Saints) made a run,” said Poulin, whose team edged the Saints, 54-52, earlier this month.

Senior Cooper Jensen paced the Saints with 13 points and eight rebounds, while Michael Hill added eight points and six rebounds.

“We obviously didn’t start the game the way we wanted to,” said Saints coach Rob Klemm. “We continued to fight — we got within seven a couple times, but it’s hard to chase 20.

“We’ve got to keep working. It’s a great group of kids. They’re fun to be around. They work hard. We’re going to figure it out.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251219/boys-basketball/basketball-st-charles-east-girls-give-st-charles-north-first-loss-north-stars-boys-top-saints/