ST. CHARLES – St. Charles North’s roster card ascended wobbily alongside the St. Charles East scoreboard until someone stopped tugging the rope below late Friday night.

The Saints’ lineup of players already hung on the opposite side as the host team’s 50-38 loss to Schamburg in the East Thanksgiving Invitational wound down.

Take away that whole “ascending” thing, and this is how St. Charles’ two boys basketball teams arrived at playing each other for seventh place in the tournament at 2:30 p.m. today. One side will get its first victory at the expense of the other, as players from both clubs channel the perspective needed when you teeter out of the gate.

“These are some tough teams we’re playing, but we feel like its better to have a week like this than to go to maybe a lesser tournament and beat up on people,” North senior point guard Chris Conrad said. “Come March, this is going to be a real positive for us.”

East Aurora senior Ryan Boatright also still wants to be at large in basketball’s zaniest month. He got a start against the North Stars on this late November night, exploding for a career-high 55 points in a 75-66 win.

Boatright finished one point shy of a school record and added 10 rebounds and 10 steals for what he called his first high school triple-double. The Connecticut recruit also shines on the AAU circuit.

Conrad and fellow senior Josh Mikes know all too well. The duo has matched up against Boatright and running mate Letrell “Snoop” Viser since the fifth grade. With a versatile array of jumpers and dunks that wowed an overflow crowd, Boatright reminded them with a double-nickel borne of a supremely confident attitude.

“I don’t ever think there’s somebody that can stop me. That’s just my mentality. That’s how I approach the game,” Boatright said. “If you think somebody can stop you, somebody can take what you give them. You give them more confidence and they might be able to do it. But if you go out there with the mindset that can’t nobody hold me, can’t nobody hold you.”

East and North shared more than 0-3 records at night’s end. Both of their games featured something that neither St. Charles team wanted to count. With 2-1 East Aurora, it was Boatright’s scoring tally and the times he got easy looks in the paint.

Against Schaumburg (2-1), East grew weary of a mounting toll of fourth-quarter turnovers that totaled 10 and gave the Saints 22 for the night. Ball control has been a recurring problem to start the season, which only means it’s correctable.

“The film is going to show where they made the errant pass and how they’ve got to make a tighter dribble and protect the ball,” Saints coach Brian Clodi said. “We’ve jut got to get into an offense.”

Sophomore guard Kendall Stephens led the Saints with 15 points, while senior Dan Ditusa added seven. A Ditusa trey early in the fourth quarter gave East a 34-33 lead before turnovers turned up again.

North drew to within a point of the Tomcats at 55-54 on a Josh Mikes three-point play with 5:54 remaining in the game, but then Boatright warmed up again. One sequence featured a block of North post man Kyle Nelson at one end and a reverse dunk at the other end moments later.

North Stars coach Tom Poulin said he never seriously considered defending Boatright with a box-and-one because North is a man-to-man team in the long run. He also said his players were at their best when they shared the ball.

Mikes (16), Conrad (15), Quinten Payne (14) and Nelson (12) all finished in double figures. Collectively, they were one field goal better than Boatright.