Maine South pulls away from South Elgin
No. 8 seed South Elgin looked poised to pull an upset though 23 minutes, but top-seed Maine South flexed its muscles down the stretch and pulled away for a 47-38 victory at the 36th Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York High School Monday.
South Elgin's patient offense and 8-rebound advantage staked it to a 22-17 halftime lead, and the Storm still led 32-26 with 1:32 left in the third quarter after senior guard Tommy Childs sank a floater from the lane.
Then the Hawks and senior P.J. Killean toughened up. Maine South held the Storm without a field goal for the next 8:13 - a span during which it outscored South Elgin 16-1 - and the Hawks outrebounded the Storm 6-1 in the fourth quarter to gain a berth in the tournament semifinals.
"There's a classic example of just getting out-toughed the last 10 minutes of the ballgame," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "(Maine South) got extra rebounds, got extra hustle plays down the stretch and just toughed us out a little bit.
"I told the kids after a timeout that rebounding comes from the heart. We can do all the blockout (drills) we want and teach technique and do this and that, but when that ball comes off the rim it comes down to heart and you've got to go get that ball."
Maine South (10-1) will face Riverside-Brookfield (7-1) today at 7:15 p.m. Lyons (10-0) will take on Brother Rice (9-0) in the first semifinal at 5:45 p.m.
South Elgin (9-2), which had its school-record tying 7-game winning streak snapped, will play York (7-4) today at 4 p.m.
Killean was the comeback catalyst. The 6-foot-3 guard scored 20 of his season- and game-high 24 points in the second half, including 15 points in the contest's final 8:35. After his team shot 0 of 4 from 3-point range in the first half, Killean canned all four 3-pointers he attempted in the second half, when he shot 6 of 8 from the field.
"My teammates fed me the ball when I was open, my coach called good sets for us and I just started hitting open shots," Killean said.
Killean hit a 3-pointer with 35 seconds left in the third quarter and senior Justin Wasik pulled the Hawks within 33-31 on a baseline drive for a layup with 5 seconds left in the period.
The trend continued in the fourth quarter as Killean came off a solid screen to hit another open 3-pointer from the right corner. With Maine South leading 35-33, Killean scored 7 straight points. He connected on another 3-pointer after a good screen gave him space, he made a steal that he turned into 2 free throws and he scored a layup, courtesy of a nice inbound feed from senior guard Pat Maher. Killean's personal mini-run put the Hawks ahead 42-33 with 3:17 remaining.
"We had some guys who didn't want to finish the game off," Childs said. "We got too happy with the first half and we didn't play 32 minutes of basketball. They took the lead and they won. They had the better team today."
South Elgin turned the ball over just 5 times in the game. The Storm patiently ran its offense, sometimes for a minute and a half, in order to gain good shots. However, they hit only 2-of-9 attempts in the fourth quarter, when they went 1 of 5 from 3-point range.
"Any time you play against a team that's 9-1 and truly believes, you just have to bide your time," Maine South coach Tony Lavorato, Jr. said. "I thought our poise was tremendous. Our focus and energy in the second half was better than in the first half. I thought we got beat to too many loose balls and rebounds. The difference was the second shots. We didn't give up as many second shots in the second half, and we were able to execute our offense and break down their defense a little bit."
Sam Sutter led South Elgin with 14 points and Childs added 13. Wasik scored 11 points for the Hawks.