Crystal Lake South outlasts South Elgin
Trailing South Elgin 23-9 late in the first quarter, Crystal Lake South’s girls basketball team methodically whittled away at the Storm lead and eventually pulled out a 78-71 win Friday night in a game at South’s Swamp, which was part of the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving Tournament.
“We have quality kids who won’t give up,” said CL South coach Kyle McCaughn. “We have enough scorers who cane come back and play an up-tempo game. South Elgin is a good team that came out and shot lights out. But our kids answered the bell. We need to shore up the defense. But it was a quality win against a quality team.”
Sophomore forward Chanel Fanter had the best game of her Gator career, scoring 32 points with 14 rebounds and 3 assists.
“The girls got the ball to me inside in good position to score,” said Fanter. “The year on the varsity last year really helped. I worked in the offseason in attacking the basket more. My shot was there tonight and it was a good team win.”
Fanter scored 14 of her 32 points in the final quarter.
“She really worked hard in the offseason and in the summer,” McCaughn said of Fanter. “She had a whale of a game; it was certainly the best of her career. Chanel is only going to get better.”
Slicing into South Elgin’s lead all night, the Gators (3-0) finally took the lead for good, 58-57, on a layup by Fanter with 4:37 remaining in the game. South’s biggest lead was 68-61 on a putback by Fanter with 1:56 left.
The Gators sealed the win by connecting on 8 of 10 from the free-throw line in the final minutes.
Fanter made 4 free throws and Carly Nolan connected on 3 from the line.
Nolan backed Fanter with 15 points, while Sara Mickow scored 14 and Rachel Rasmussen 11 for the winners.
South Elgin, which made 11 of 22 from 3-point range, was led by Nadia Yang with 21 points and Savanah Uveges with 20. They each had 3 3-pointers. But the Storm made only 13 of 26 from the free-throw line.
“The free-throw shooting hurt us and we missed some easy shots,” said South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast. “We are a better team than that, but (South) played well tonight.”