Sanchez's clutch bomb sparks S. Elgin Storm past St. Charles East

At his listed height of 5-feet-8, Alex Sanchez was one of the shortest players on the basketball court Saturday night.

But he stood tall when his team needed it most, burying a clutch 3-pointer with 1:24 remaining to give South Elgin a 40-39 lead it wouldn't relinquish.

The Storm (10-3, 3-0) earned a hard-fought 44-39 victory over host St. Charles East in the Upstate Eight Conference.

Sanchez, who scored 6 of his 9 points in the fourth quarter, thought about going inside before hoisting his 3-point attempt from the corner.

"I just looked and I wanted to see if the guy (defender) was going to come out," said the senior point guard. "When he didn't, I just let it out. It was huge."

Before that, Sanchez had only attempted 4 shots from the field and hadn't made a basket since his 3-pointer in the opening quarter for the Storm (10-3, 3-0).

"We talk about him shooting more, but he's more of an old-school player," said Storm coach Chaz Taft. "Defense is first and offense second. He's got a great shooting percentage from 2 (-point range) but he really wants to get everybody else involved."

Trailing most of the way, the Saints' rally hopes didn't look favorable after 6-7 senior Kevin Senechalle (12 points, 13 rebounds) fouled out with 3:32 remaining and his team down 36-32.

But the Saints (2-12, 1-3) didn't go away quietly, as Jess Striedl (9 points) canned his third 3-pointer of the game from the top of the key to narrow the deficit to 36-35. Four straight free throws from Phil Kohlhagen put the Saints on top 39-37 with 1:41 left.

"We were up 39-37 and we needed a key stop," said Saints coach Brian Clodi. "But they came down and Sanchez being the veteran he is, he knocked down a three. We needed a stop. We needed to make one more play and we didn't."

The Saints' bid to force overtime evaporated after a missed 3-pointer with 3.1 seconds left.

"If this was last year's group, it's probably a struggle," Taft said of his team's late composure. "But a lot of these seniors have matured - guys like Alex Sanchez and Jordan Dobler.

"They know where to be in our late-game situation. They ran what we were talking about and we didn't have to call a timeout. We kind of dug this one out."

Dobler, who tallied 11 of his game-high 15 points in the third quarter, was happy to see some of his shots fall.

"I was off in the first half but my teammates needed me in the second half and I started knocking down my shots," said Dobler. "I've had a few off-games lately so this one felt good."

South Elgin, which led 15-10 at halftime, limited the Saints to just 2 first-half field goals, but the Storm had offensive problems, shooting 4-for-26 from the floor.

"We really take a lot of pride in our defense," said Taft, whose team will visit Elgin on Friday night. "We concentrate on it a lot because we're not going to win games like this if we don't pick up and stick on the defensive side of the floor."