Sullivan, York stymie short-handed South Elgin

York's first 2 points were scored on a baseline drive by junior Will Sullivan. So were the Dukes' last 2 points.

In between, the 6-foot-3 guard with long arms and remarkable body control poured in 29 more to lead York to a 62-50 victory over short-handed South Elgin at the 36th Annual Jack Tosh Holiday Tournament in Elmhurst on Tuesday.

York (8-4) will face Downers Grove South for fifth place today at 4 p.m. South Elgin (9-3), which suffered back-to-back losses for the first time this season, will play Oswego for seventh place at 2:30 p.m.

The Storm, playing for the second straight day without 6-foot-4 senior Sam Jordt (concussion) and 6-4 junior Matt Hattendorf (knee), couldn't control Sullivan, who tied his season high with 33 points. He shot 14 of 20 from the field, sank a pair of 3-pointers in 3 attempts, grabbed 8 rebounds and dished 4 assists.

"We don't have an answer for Will Sullivan," South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. "He's going to be a Division-I player. You could see he's at a different level than any one of our guys.

"He didn't show us anything we didn't have on the scouting report, but it's tough to guard somebody when you don't come ready to play. We knew where he was going to go: drive to the baseline. First play of the game, (he went) right to the baseline."

Sullivan's 8 first-quarter points, combined with 7 South Elgin turnovers, lifted the Dukes to a 13-5 lead after one period.

South Elgin used an 8-3 run to pull within 16-13 with 4:10 left in the second quarter, a push capped by Tommy Childs' fastbreak layup, courtesy of a Sheldon Chaney steal.

But the Dukes responded with an 8-0 run - a Sullivan post move followed by 3-pointers from senior Sam Cleary (10 points) and Sullivan - to build the lead to 11 points.

"We had a few things to look at like a few of those back door cuts," Sullivan said. "We did a good job of emphasizing them throughout the game. Coming off ball screens we really wanted to get into the lane and make our reads off that. I thought we did a pretty good job of that."

York led 26-18 at halftime. The Storm made a last push with a 9-2 run to trim the deficit to 33-27 with 4:25 to play in the third quarter. However, following a timeout Cleary drained an open 3-pointer and senior guard Evan Fendley sank another 3-pointer in transition to put York ahead 39-27. South Elgin never pulled closer than 9 points the rest of the game.

South Elgin committed more turnovers against York (15) than it had in two tournament games combined against St. Ignatius and Maine South (12).

"It was our composure," Childs said. "Most guys out there just gave up today. We went down a few points, came back a little bit and guys started to get into it, then we would go back down. The attitude just sunk again. It felt like we were down by 50 and the team gave up.

"Stuff like that can't happen because that can lead to regionals and sectionals. What are these guys gonna do when we're down by 15 in the third quarter?"

Childs led the Storm with 13 points.