South Elgin storms back

After a tough Upstate Eight Conference loss Friday night, the South Elgin boys basketball team was happy to be back on the floor Saturday night.

The Storm came out ready to play and dominated Glenbard North en route to a 93-56 nonconference victory in South Elgin.

"Coach (Chaz Taft) told us we can't hang our heads about that loss," Storm senior Jeff Lewis said. "We had to bounce back from adversity."

The Storm (11-6), which lost to Neuqua Valley on Friday, went back to what Lewis says is "what South Elgin basketball is all about." That is defensive pressure. The Storm hounded the Panthers (6-12) throughout, especially in the first half when the Storm forced 13 turnovers. Many of those led to easy baskets.

South Elgin went on a 12-0 run to take a 14-5 lead just 4:20 into the first quarter. The Storm extended the lead to 22-12 after the first, going 9 for 16 from the field.

"We didn't get down on ourselves because we lost to Neuqua," Taft said. "We talked about our composure. We talked about after the emotional game with Neuqua not to have any setbacks."

The second quarter was much of the same. The Storm stretched the lead to as many as 21 and led 40-21 at the break. Dan Lopez dominated in the post, scoring 8 points and grabbing 5 rebounds in the second. The Panthers, coming off a DuPage Valley Conference victory a day earlier, went 4 for 11 for the quarter and were 8 for 22 in the half.

"I thought (the Storm) were much more ready to play then we were," Glenbard North coach Joe Larson said. "We've got to learn from this."

Lopez did not play the fourth quarter but finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds, 7 offensive. Erik Stade added 17 points, 12 in the fourth. Jordan Dobler had 12 points. Lewis added 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 steals.

James Fleming led the Panthers with 18 points, 11 in the second half. Mike Carev added 9 off the bench.