South Elgin holds off Barrington's late run

Barrington executed its defensive plan to stop South Elgin's Tommy Childs to near perfection.

The Broncos just didn't bring the offense to South Elgin.

Host South Elgin limited Barrington to a total of 5 combined points in the first and third quarters as the Storm took a 54-46 boys basketball victory Wednesday night to snap a 3-game losing streak in nonconference action.

"Childs is a tough matchup and when he has 4 points going into the fourth quarter, I was happy with the job we did," Broncos' coach Bryan Tucker said.

Childs scored 10 of his team-high 14 points in the final period as South Elgin was able to hold off a late Barrington run.

The Broncos (10-11) trailed 36-21 entering the fourth quarter after failing to score for the first 7 minutes, 37 seconds of the second half. South Elgin (14-7) limited the Broncos to just 2 points on a 0 of 8 shooting effort in the third quarter.

But, Barrington outscored South Elgin 25-18 in the final 8 minutes, although it could never come closer than 51-44 when Greg Gerrard nailed 3-pointer with 26 seconds remaining.

South Elgin countered by finishing the game going 10 of 15 from the free-throw line, with Childs sinking all 6 of his foul shot attempts.

"We held them to 2 points (in the third quarter) and thought it was over," Storm coach Chaz Taft said.

Barrington was able to get the ball down low to sophomore forward John Schneider (8 rebounds), who scored 9 of his 12 points in the final period. Barrington was 50 percent (10 of 20) in the final period after going just 22.2 percent (6 of 27) in the first three quarters.

With the Broncos' defensive effort successfully focusing on Childs, the Storm got a balanced offensive effort from the rest of the team. South Elgin had 5 players finish with at least 5 points, including Dillon Gardner scoring all 10 of his points in the second half.

Gardner (6 rebounds) was the main benefactor of Barrington's 5 third-quarter turnovers. After steals from Jake Maestranzi (7 points, 6 steals, 3 assists) and Sam Sutter (5 points, 2 steals, 2 assists) on consecutive Barrington possessions, Gardner was able to sprint down the count for a wide-open layup. Overall, South Elgin scored 11 of its 12 third-quarter points off Barrington turnovers.

"South Elgin basketball is getting layups from fast breaks and trying to get the ball down the court," Gardner said.

James Stark hit three 3-pointers in the second quarter as the Broncos cut the lead to 24-19 by halftime after South Elgin opened the game on a 13-1 run. The Storm led by as much as 22-11 in the first half.