Josh Kaunas, Johnsburg’s towering guard, sank a left-wing 3-pointer and smiled at his bench as he hustled back on defense.

When the 6-foot-5 junior dribbled up the court, pulled up five feet beyond the top of the key and hit another fourth-quarter shot, he looked at his bench and smiled wider.

When Kaunas canned his third 3 of the fourth – his sixth of the game to give him a career-high 29 points – he looked at his teammates on the bench with his biggest smile of the night.

“I was just having fun with all of them,” Kaunas said. “Special moment.”

Kaunas’ special night lifted host Johnsburg to its fifth win in a row, 69-54 over a young and stubborn Woodstock North team in a Kishwaukee River Conference game Monday night.

“It was fun,” said Kaunas, whose previous high game was 19 points, which he achieved last year in KRC action at Sandwich. “Sometimes you just get in a flow state, where everything’s going in. It’s a really good feeling.”

Kaunas scored 22 points in the second half on 8-of-10 shooting, including 5 of 6 from three-point range, as the Skyhawks (5-4, 3-0) staved off the upset-minded Thunder (0-8, 0-3).

“That was something,” Woodstock North senior guard Zaiden Vess said of Kaunas’ second-half shooting performance. “Kudos to him. Wow.”

Vess had a “wow” game himself, scoring a career-high 24 points and matching Kaunas with six 3-pointers. Like Kaunas as well, Vess hit three 3s in the fourth quarter.

“It felt nice,” Vess said after his first 20-point game. “Whatever was working, worked.”

Kaunas finished 9 of 14 from the floor (six 3s) and 5 of 5 from the free-throw line. After he made only 1 of 4 shots (a 3-pointer) in the first half, he scored twice on putbacks early in the third quarter to help Johnsburg create some separation after the Thunder pulled to within 32-30 on a Vess 3-pointer.

Kaunas later hit a back-to-back 3s to extend the Skyhawks’ lead to 47-32 with 3:13 left in the third.

“JK shot it well,” Skyhawks coach Mike Toussaint said of Kaunas. “Not that I expect 29 from him, but he’s a scorer.”

A starter as a sophomore last season, Kaunas has shown there isn’t much he can’t do on the basketball court. He threw down an alley-oop dunk from Trey Toussaint off an inbounds pass against Sandwich on Friday night. Besides his 29-point effort against Woodstock North, Kaunas also had five rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots.

“He’s a really good defensive player,” Mike Toussaint said. “He is smart. He can pick up point guards. He can guard post players. ... He had a really good game. I was happy for him. He’s a good kid. He can shoot it, and he can do it all.”

The Thunder, which started two sophomores, including recent call-up Ben Hendershot, trailed Johnsburg 20-8 after one quarter. But Vess, Hendershot (six points, six rebounds, three steals) and junior Ethan Richardson (eight points) hit 3-pointers in helping cut the visitors’ deficit to 29-27 by halftime.

“They play hard,” Mike Toussaint said of the Thunder. “They play well. They outrebounded us bad, I thought. First half, we were one and done and they were getting second and third shots.”

Brady Roger grabbed eight rebounds, including five offensive, and scored four points coming off the bench for North. The Thunder next look for its first win under first-year coach Tim Paddock on Saturday, when it plays Fenton at Marengo’s E.C. Nichols Tournament.

“I don’t even pay attention to what the record is, and I know it’s hard for [the players], but they’re getting better day,” Paddock said. “We’re doing a better job defensively game in and game out. We just always have a stretch where for three or four minutes a lid goes on the rim and the game gets away from us a little bit. But that will change. They (have) got to keep believing.”

Jayce Schmitt (17 points, three 3s) and Trey Toussaint (12 points, four 3s) also scored in double figures for Johnsburg, which shot 15 of 35 (43%) from three-point range.

“It feel like we have either a bad first quarter or a bad second quarter,” said Mike Toussaint, whose Skyhawks trailed Harvest-Westminster by two points at halftime last week but won 71-45.

“I think it’s the good coaching adjustments that I make at halftime,” he joked.