Close not good enough anymore

Opinions vary as to the origin of the phrase, "close but no cigar."

The prevailing belief is that the phrase was popularized by traveling carnivals, where a cigar was often the prize awarded to anyone who could swing a sledgehammer hard enough to ring the bell.

No bell? No cigar.

Close didn't cut it.

That's a cold, hard fact the South Elgin boys basketball team could relate to last year during its inaugural varsity season.

With no seniors on the roster, South Elgin often stayed close to its competition but too often failed to ring the bell. The Storm lost nine games by 7 points or less and finished with a record of 8 wins and 21 losses.

"We didn't know how to finish due to our lack of experience," said senior guard Adam Hodge. "The difference now is trust."

With the benefit of senior leadership for the first time, South Elgin is determined to make the memory of last season's close-but-no-cigar campaign go up in smoke.

The Storm (3-2) has lost to Rolling Meadows by 8 points and Lake Forest Academy by 6 points, but signs point to this squad winning its fair share of close contests.

Two games already stand out in coach Chaz Taft's mind as examples, the first being a win against his alma mater, Fenton, at the Fenton Thanksgiving Tournament on Nov. 23.

South Elgin led Fenton by 1 point with two minutes to play. Instead of faltering or playing tentatively, the Storm attacked and scored 7 straight points en route to a 55-50 victory.

They turned in another example of improvement in a pressure situation last Friday against Lake Park, the team that crushed South Elgin 84-45 last year in a regional semifinal.

The Upstate Eight Conference teams were tied 27-27 heading to the fourth quarter until South Elgin took a 5-point lead and held on to win 46-38. The defensive-minded Storm won by holding the Lancers to 32-percent shooting and forcing 21 turnovers.

"In the same situation with last year's team, I don't know if we could have gotten out of those pressure situations so early in the season," Taft said. "It's a learning process, and they're learning how to finish games. That's the difference.

"It's about maturity and it's about experience, but most of all these guys trust each other. Everybody who's out on that floor, no matter if it's a sub or a starter, trusts each other to cover for each other on the defensive end of the floor."

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of South Elgin's winning record in the early going? The Storm is winning without two top players from last year.

Junior Josh Smith, a player Taft last season called "the best defender on the team," was lost for the year in September when he tore an anterior cruciate ligament while playing football.

Another key injury befell the Storm during the first week of the regular season when center Jason Morris, a Daily Herald All-Area selection a year ago when he averaged 17.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while driving for a layup during practice.

At the time of the injury, Morris was trying to win his starting job back from Dan Lopez (6-9, 270 pounds), who had outworked him over the summer.

Losing a player of Morris' size and skill level was a blow, but you'd never know it by speaking with the coach and his players.

"We haven't talked about it once," Taft said of the injuries to Morris and Smith. "Jason is gone with an ACL, but we're just going to move on without missing a beat. We can't. It is what it is.

"I think if I or another coach had said it won't be the same thing without them, that's not being a coach. That's giving up on the kids here that have worked their tails off and a team that has worked its tail off."

The players have just rolled with the punches.

"I think losing both of them hurt us, but we're still a good team," said senior guard Josh Glenn. "With them we'd be great, but without them we can still be great."

Scoring is now more spread out in South Elgin's 4-guard, motion offense. Senior captains Hodge (16.4) and Glenn (11.2) lead the team in scoring with Lopez (10.2) and junior point guard Alex Sanchez (8.0) also picking up some scoring slack.

"Now they have to guard all five of us instead of one," Glenn said.

Said Taft: "We're just more balanced. Last year everyone knew where the ball was going to go and who we were trying to get it to.

"Now teams can't cheat off one player. You can always cheat off someone until they hurt you. Now it's more of a balanced attack and the kids are buying into that. The kids have also been working on their games and have really improved."

South Elgin's fifth starter in Smith's place is junior Jeff Lewis, a hustling, 5-foot-10 guard Taft says "never takes a play off."

Rounding out the rotation are sixth man Jordan Dobler (whose older brother Conrad played at Larkin), perimeter shutdown defender Eric Stade (6-0), a junior, and 6-2 forward Stephen Carter, an energetic, defensive-minded rebounder.

Better balanced, more experienced and hungry, South Elgin has lofty goals that include finishing in the top three in a very deep Upstate Eight Conference, winning a regional title, posting a winning record at home and going undefeated against its sister schools within Elgin Area School District U-46.

Each is a tough objective but as Taft pointed out, "Why set goals that are easy to achieve? It has to be a hard goal but realistic."

The players believe they can compete this time around.

"Our chemistry has come so far now that we're seniors," Hodge said. "It's great to see how we make reads off each other. Last year we didn't really know what each other could do.

"You can see we've made big strides. It's definitely a confidence builder to win some close games already, but at the same time you can't sit back on that. We've got some tough games coming up. We have to prepare for every game like it's a championship game."

If South Elgin's opponents aren't just as prepared, they'd better get used to the sound of a ringing bell.