From all across the Chicagoland area, 17 prep girls basketball teams made the trek to Lake Zurich High School Tuesday evening to join the host Bears in the annual Exam Jamm spectacular that features a trio of tripleheaders being played in a pair of auxiliary gyms in addition to the main fieldhouse.

The host school faced off against a St. Charles North unit that came into the contest undefeated in their first six games on their fieldhouse home floor seeking to successfully defend it.

In a game that went down to the wire, it would be the North Stars’ ability to make their way past a strong effort by the hosts for a 38-37 win on Bronwyn How’s inside hoop off an Ella Fuhr pass with 10 seconds left.

“It was going to have to be a shot from outside or an (inside) cut,” How, the 6-foot-3 junior, said of the game-winning score that netted her co-player of the game honors with Lake Zurich senior guard Layne Nordstrom.

“I trust my teammates on (making) that pass. It’s a play we have run so many times that I saw the positioning and I was going to take it.”

St. Charles North (7-0) spotted the Bears a 7-0 first-quarter deficit before a Sydney Johnson 3-pointer with 3:42 left in the opening stanza. That shot got them going on a 10-3 run to finish the quarter down 11-10.

The game would stay tight the rest of the way. Neither squad possessed leads of larger than three points which is what Lake Zurich (4-4) had for the third time when 5-9 junior guard Lexie Kahle drained a triple that beat the shot clock with 56 seconds left giving them a 37-34 lead.

Johnson (10 points) added a bucket that closed North within 37-36 with 44 seconds remaining before drawing a charging call which gave them the ball back and setting up How’s heroics.

“I can’t say enough nice things about the composure they had,” St. Charles North’s first-year mentor Grant Oler said about his team.

“It was not an easy game. That team (Lake Zurich) is going to win a lot of games.”

Winona State recruit Alex Nowak-Tice led the Bears with 11 points followed by 10 apiece from Kahle and her junior teammate Kaitlin Wahlund.

Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett praised his club’s ability to have a better performance Tuesday after a 25-point loss to Chicago Marist at Saturday’s Yates Memorial Showcase at Fremd High School.

“There’s the old adage that you don’t want to lose two in a row,“ Bennett said. ”We just wanted to respond and we did way better. They just executed one more play than we did.”