South Elgin's Childs heeds brotherly advice

Tommy Childs was getting some added words of encouragement from his brother before taking the court against Elgin Friday night.

And if anyone would know about Elgin basketball, they would also know Childs' brother, former Elgin superstar Brandon Grissette.

"We talked before the game and he told me to stay calm and just play my game," Childs' said.

The South Elgin senior's game included torching the Maroons for 18 first-half points as the Storm easily downed Elgin 57-37 in Upstate Eight Conference boys basketball action in South Elgin.

Although he started off a little slow from the floor, making just 1 of his first 4 shots, Childs scored 9 points in the first quarter putting South Elgin (12-4, 4-0) up 18-10 by the end of the period. The senior guard added an additional 9 points in the second quarter, extending South Elgin's lead to 32-21 by halftime as Elgin (4-14, 0-5) was never able to get much going offensively in the first half.

Childs went 63.6 percent (7 of 11) from the floor in the first half as South Elgin matched his shooting percentage as a team (14 of 22). Childs finished with a game-high 24 points and added 3 assists and a block.

"We knew going in he was going to be the best player on the floor," Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. "But giving up 18 (points) in the first half is ridiculous. We went in a little too hyped up. We didn't keep our composure."

South Elgin also admitted going into Friday's contest against its district rival with some jitters and coach Chaz Taft pointed to the first-half defensive effort as a byproduct of the jitters.

"We wanted to get a single-digit quarter," Taft said of his team's defensive goal. "We got 7 in the third and 9 in the fourth. We needed to settle down and let the defense create the offense."

South Elgin closed out the first half and much of the third quarter on a 15-0 run. Tim Newcombe (5 points, 6 rebounds) cut the Storm lead to 30-21 with 1:53 left in the first half.

Elgin would not score again for over 8 minutes. Arie Williams connected on a 3-pointer with 1:45 remaining in the third quarter, but South Elgin had built its lead to 45-24 at the time. The Maroons missed their first 9 shots of the second half and did not score until their 11th possession.

The poor shooting effort negated the 13 turnovers that Elgin forced in the second and third quarters. South Elgin's Sam Jordt (10 points, 12 rebounds) scored 5 points during the 15-0 run, while Elgin got 14 points from reserve Dennis Moore. The Maroons' bench contributed a combined 24 points.