Crystal Lake South answers South Elgin

Every time the South Elgin girls basketball team threatened to take the lead late, Crystal Lake South had an answer Wednesday night.

After trailing by as many as 12 points in the third quarter, the Storm pulled within a point on three occasions in the fourth period only to see the Gators respond with a basket to restore their cushion. The result? A 54-49 nonconference win for CL South, which never trailed.

CL South (5-7) led 25-17 at halftime, but South Elgin (4-6) pulled within 36-35 on a 3-pointer by sophomore reserve Lania Robinson early in the final period. Senior guard Michelle Gaede answered for CL South with a long 2-pointer.

Storm sophomore Becca Smith hit a short jump shot to cut the deficit to 38-37 with 6:25 to play, but Gaede answered again with a long jumper from the baseline.

"We definitely didn't want them to get it close. We like to have that little cushion," said Gaede, who finished with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting. "My shots were falling tonight."

Again the Storm cut the lead to a point when sophomore Emily Young scored a putback basket after an offensive rebound and was fouled. However, the missed free throw that could have tied the game was rebounded by Gaede, the ball was moved quickly up court and senior Lauren Chrystal scored a transition basket with a nice move through the lane to give the Gators a 42-39 lead with 5:05 to play.

"It just seemed like we were playing catch up the whole game," South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast said. "Every time we got within 1 or 2, they would come down and knock down a big shot. They shot the ball well (17 of 35). We switched things up defensively, but it was too little too late."

The Storm never pulled closer than 3 points again. Two fourth-quarter buckets by CL South senior Katie Burton (13 points), a left-handed drive by senior Jenny Hanrahan (14 points, 13 rebounds) and a 6-of-9 performance from the free-throw line down the stretch were enough to keep South Elgin at bay.

"We have some real nice kids who can answer like that," CL South coach Kyle McCaughn said. "Michelle Gaede stepped up and had a big night for us again and we hit some free throws down the stretch - not enough to end it - but enough to keep ourselves at a comfortable distance. When you have kids who can step up and answer it makes it a little bit easier."

South Elgin pointed to its slow start as the reason for its second straight loss. The Storm shot 8 of 32 in the first half against CL South's 3-2 zone defense and were unable to ignite their up-tempo transition game until late in the third quarter.

"We're at our best when we're able to run and we just weren't able to do that with them sitting in that zone," said Smith (16 points, 10 rebounds). "We tried to get around it and get our offense going, but it just didn't work tonight.

"That's really frustrating. We're going to look back on this game and be like, 'Man, we should have had that.' But there's nothing we can do about it now. We just have to move on. We've got a big game on Friday."

South Elgin will host Upstate Eight rival St. Charles East on Friday. CL South will host Grayslake North.