Wrap: Storm, Royals, Hawks move on

The Elgin girls basketball team had a chance to put a season of misery in the rear view mirror Monday night in the quarterfinal round of the Class 4A Larkin regional.

The Maroons trailed District U-46 rival South Elgin 30-28 with under a minute left to play, the same South Elgin team that had drilled Elgin 81-59 earlier in the season.

Elgin got the basketball into the hands of 6-foot-1 junior Ellen Holton, but her contested shot to tie the game was short, the ball went out of bounds to South Elgin, Storm senior Alexa Kruel made 2 free throws with 27 seconds left and the third-seeded Storm was able to sneak out of the west side with a 32-28 win, the program's first postseason victory.

"We were fortunate to come out on top," said first-year Storm coach Tim Prendergast. "The last time we played (Elgin) we played really well. Tonight we didn't. Maybe we got the ugly game out of our system and we'll come out and play better (tonight)."

The Storm (15-13) gets a date with No. 2 seed St. Charles East (14-11) at 8 p.m. tonight in the semifinals. Prior to that, No. 4 seed Larkin will take on top-seeded St. Charles North (19-5). Larkin advanced by beating Streamwood 58-37 Monday night.

"The kids gave a good effort," said Elgin coach Angie Hudson. "We've got a lot of young people out there. We've got all summer to work hard and we're looking forward to better things next year."

The Maroons (1-25) were never out of the game Monday. It was tied 8-8 after one quarter, South Elgin led 13-12 at halftime and 23-18 after three quarters. But while South Elgin's biggest lead of the night was 7, the closest Elgin would come would be 2.

"Once Elgin was in this game with us, they had all the confidence in the world," said Prendergast. "They played great. They weren't going to roll over for us."

Holton, who was injured and didn't play against South Elgin earlier in the season, led the Maroons with 10 points. She did, however, have to sit out a significant part of the second half in foul trouble.

"She makes a lot of difference out there," Hudson said. "She was just starting to get back into the swing of things. I was concerned when she went out with foul trouble that the game might get away from us but the other kids did a good job."

Giselle Bruskewitz, one of only two seniors on Elgin's roster, contributed 6 points and 7 rebounds. Kruel led South Elgin, which was just 9 of 59 shooting, with 9 points while junior Courtney Kumerow had 7 points and 17 rebounds.

Larkin 58, Streamwood 37: Larkin is oozing with confidence after scoring its third straight win, downing Streamwood for the second time in four days, although this time in much more convincing fashion than Friday's 54-42 win at Streamwood.

"Friday night wasn't the best we could play," said Larkin senior Alyssa Burns, who led all scorers Monday with 22 points, as well as 9 steals and 6 assists. "A lot more people got involved tonight and we did much better."

The Royals (6-20) jumped ahead 8-0 and never looked back. Streamwood (4-23) fought hard but suffered through 15 of 51 shooting from the floor and 5 of 23 from the free-throw line. Larkin led 18-6 after one quarter and 30-16 at halftime. The closest the Sabres would come in the second half was 12.

"We came out on fire in that first quarter," Larkin coach Amy Silverman said. "Jessica Harris had a great first half, Sophie Sterricker did a great job on the boards and Burns and Laura Kay played really strong defense. They're just so quick."

Harris had 9 of her 12 points in the first half and Sterricker added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Royals, who out-rebounded Streamwood 42-32.

The Sabres had 10 players score in the game but could never capitalize at the line to make the game closer.

"The 8-0 start was bad; that wasn't expected," said Sabres coach George Rosner. "(Larkin) came out and hit their shots. But the bottom line was free-throw shooting. We're a high school varsity basketball team and we went 5-for-23 at the line. If we had made a good percentage of our free throws and made some of the open shots we missed, it would have been a different game."

Freshman Emma Schmidt led the Sabres with 8 points and 8 rebounds while sophomore Melissa Oehlerking added 7 points. Sophomore point guard Caitlin Marchant had 5 steals.

-- John Radtke

Bartlett 71, Morton 31: Hosting the Bartlett regional, it was a big night for the Hawks as they opened postseason play with a 71-31 victory over No. 18 seed Morton.

Bartlett (10-18) will take on No. 2 seed Schaumburg (25-5) in the 6 p.m. semifinal tonight.

With 6-foot forward Jacki Gulczynski buried inside in double and sometimes triple coverage early, the Hawks turned to outside shooting, giving them not only a quick lead, but also a balanced offensive attack that could not be matched.

Gulczyinski (7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals) got Bartlett on the board hitting the first of 2 free throws just one minute into the game.

Morton countered with a bucket shortly after to go up 2-1, but it was the first and only time the Mustangs would lead.

The Hawks followed with a 13-0 run before Morton closed the first eight minutes with 2 points from Natalie Jaime.

The 13-0 run exhibited scoring from Sam Salinas, Christina Carlson (4 points), Gulczyinski, Alexa Tovella and Katie Koster. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Koster (9 points) and Tovella put Bartlett on top 14-2 with a minute remaining in the first quarter.

Tovella went on to lead all scorers with 13 points while snagging 4 steals and pulling down 4 rebounds.

"This was a great win for us," said Tovella. "We all worked together. It was a team effort."

While 15th seed Bartlett saw scoring from all but one uniformed player, it was the defensive end of things that made the difference. Morton was held to single-digit scoring in the first three quarters of the game.

"We focused on defense early which really set the tone," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "We leaned on defense and rebounding the entire first half. I told the girls, 'let the game come to you and good things will happen.' "

Morton's frustration began to show midway through the second quarter as turnovers led the Hawks on an 11-0 run to make it 28-6 with two minutes left to play in the half.

Becca Cronin came off the bench to score 7 points, dish out 2 assists and swipe two from the Mustangs, and Salinas (7 points) tallied the bulk of her scoring in that time.

"The kids came out with great intensity up and down the lineup," said Sarna. "This is a really young team and we played an extremely tough schedule this season. We faced a lot of very strong teams early in the season. The girls are settling down now and they have confidence."

"Tonight's scoring was very balanced, which was great. More importantly, some kids came off the bench and gave quality minutes which will allow us to be fresh for Schaumburg. Schaumburg is a very good team. We will have to work on all cylinders but it's playoff time and anything is possible."

-- Jen LaPorte