South Elgin holds off Streamwood upset bid

Streamwood came pretty close to spoiling South Elgin's Senior Night.

But a 5-point swing in the closing minute of the third quarter turned into a 62-49 victory for the Storm girls in Upstate Eight Conference action in South Elgin Friday night. Without back-to-back steals turned into buckets, however, Streamwood was closing in on a major upset.

"It's really frustrating when we worked really hard for three quarters and then we made silly turnovers," Streamwood forward Melissa Oehlerking said.

Freshman Becca Smith (7 points, 7 steals, 6 assists) picked a Streamwood (6-17, 1-6) pass off and found Sarah Havemann to put the Storm (16-7, 6-3) ahead 43-37 with 45 seconds left in the third period.

Andrea Mastro stole the ball on Streamwood's next trip down the court setting up Kelsey Prince's bask et. South Elgin closed out the last minute on a 5-0 run to extend a 4-point game into a 46-37 advantage entering the fourth quarter.

"We felt good going into the fourth quarter," said South Elgin center Cortney Kumerow, who led all scorers with 14 points. "We got that little run and put them away."

After staying close for almost 3 quarters, Streamwood did not make a basket until Oehlerking (10 points) connected with 3:25 left to play and South Elgin leading 58-42. The Sabres went 5 minutes, 56 seconds without a basket. The Storm, who won their sixth straight, went on a 17-4 run during that span. Senior Genevieve Johnson (5 assists) finished with 8 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter.

"We lost focus," Streamwood coach George Rosner said. "It wasn't one person, it was a combination of people and that was the ballgame. We could have gone into the fourth quarter with a two-point ballgame."

Streamwood also turned the ball over 10 times in the third quarter and 21 times in the second half and coughing the ball up just 10 total times in the first half. But the rebounding was what kept the Sabres down just 28-26 going into the second half.

Streamwood nabbed 18 rebounds, including 10 offensive in the first half. Oehlerking (3 assists, 2 steals) finished with 8, 4 offensive, compared to a combined 11 boards, 1 offensive, from South Elgin. The second-chance baskets paid off big. Streamwood shot just 33 percent (12 of 36) in the first, but was still able to keep in the game.

South Elgin answered with a 15-12 advantage on the glass in the second half and an 8-4 edge on the offensive glass.

"They didn't get many second and third looks in the second half," South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast said. "We really did a poor job of rebounding (in the first half)."

Emma Schmidt led Streamwood with 12 points, while Caitlin Marchant added 4 assists.