Junior forward Cooper Mellican has earned the confidence of his coach at St. Charles North.
Tom Poulin, a veteran on the North Stars’ bench, made a simple assessment of his game.
“It’s one of the guys you don’t have to worry about,” Poulin said of Mellican. “You know he’s going to give you everything he has. You know he’s going to listen and execute the game plan.
“He’s a good teammate. He’s just somebody we’re building around as we move forward.”
Mellican took another step forward in his evolution Tuesday night, with his steady, star-filled presence carrying St. Charles North to a 79-72 nonconference victory at Bartlett.
Showing how far his game has come since making his varsity debut as a sophomore, Mellican scored 16 points to lead five players in double figures for the North Stars (6-15).
Mellican also shot 10 of 10 from the free-throw line. Jacob Love scored 14 points, while Auggie Hoffman added 13 off the bench. Colin Hopp had 11 points and Camden Vine contributed 10.
Senior guard Colin Taylor led all scorers with 20 points for Bartlett (8-13). Keegan Taylor chipped in with 13 points, followed by Deedum Lege with 12 and Quint’ion Wright with 10 for the Hawks.
Mellican knew St. Charles North would rely on him more this winter, which factored into his offseason work.
“I was just preparing on taking on a bigger role on this team because I want to win,” Mellican said. “I want to be part of a team people remember, that they talk about years into the future.
“I wanted to work on myself and work with my teammates to get that chemistry to get us ready because I just want to win.”
Poulin has seen how Mellican has improved in all aspects of his game. In addition to starting to fill out his 6-foot-5 frame in the weight room, his game progressed as well.
“He’s better on the perimeter,” Poulin said of Mellican. “He’s become a better ball handler. He’s just more assertive, more confident than he was. He worked on his body. He’s getting stronger.
“He’s scratching the surface — nowhere near his potential. He’s someone we’re counting on.”
After Bartlett took a 33-32 lead to start the third quarter, part of an 8-0 run that started at the end of the first half, it was Mellican who got the lead back for good for the North Stars.
Mellican’s layup started a 22-7 spurt that suddenly built a 54-40 lead late in the third.
“I thought we played well in the first half,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. “We had a nice little finish to the first half. Then in the third quarter, I just thought we stopped defending.
“We gave them easy looks. We forced shots on our end. I thought in the fourth quarter, we started to hit some shots and tightened it a little bit, but you can’t chase that much and make it all up.”
Poulin was happy to see his team in an unfamiliar situation, playing with a lead in the fourth.
After dropping 10 straight games, St. Charles North has now won two of three heading into Thursday’s DuKane Conference game against Batavia.
“They put us in some situations,” Poulin said. “We made some mistakes, but we’re going to learn from them. Everything we’re doing is preparing to win a regional.
“People might scoff at that idea, but I don’t think this is a group that people are going to want to see in a regional.”
That mentality suits Mellican just fine. While he continues to finetune his game for a potential college career, wins are all he’s worried about at the moment.
“It just gets us ready for our ultimate goal of winning a regional and making a run in the playoffs,” Mellican said. “We’ve had some rough stretches where we’ve lost a lot of games.
“That’s kind of put us down a little bit, but we’re working on focusing on the end of the season and what we want to do, which is put a plaque on the wall.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
