Hot St. Charles East knocks off South Elgin
The St. Charles East boys basketball team maintained its red-hot status Friday night.
The visiting Saints won their fifth straight game and ninth in 11 outings by beating South Elgin 51-48 in the Upstate Eight Conference. The victory elevated St. Charles East's record to 12-10 overall and 4-4 in the UEC, a complete turnaround from a 3-8 start to the season.
"They know it's their time," Saints coach Brian Clodi said of his confident players. "It's February. They know our system and they know what we're trying to get out of each set that we run. But you have to make plays. Players make plays."
Several Saints made big plays, none moreso than 6-foot-2 senior forward Jess Streidl. St. Charles East bolted to a 20-8 advantage after a quarter and led the entire game until South Elgin (15-8, 5-3) tied it at 39 with 3:39 left in the fourth quarter on a layup by Sam Jordt.
Streidl, who sat the bulk of the second quarter in foul trouble, regained the lead for the Saints by canning a wide-open 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 3:08 left in the game.
After a fingeroll by Tommy Childs brought South Elgin back within a point, Streidl knocked down another 3-pointer, this time from the corner, to give St. Charles East a 45-41 lead with 1:54 to play.
"Coming out in the second half, I just wanted to make up for what I couldn't do in the first half and help us close out that game," said Streidl, who led his team with 12 points.
Freshman Kendall Stephens upped the lead to 6 points when he subsequently picked off a perimeter pass and converted it into a breakaway layup with 1:30 left.
"We were playing the (1-2-2 zone) and I was normally sagging down and guarding the high post," Stephens said. "But I cheated forward and happened to get a steal."
The Storm rallied in the final minute when Childs hit a 3-pointer and gained another 2 points due to goaltending against the Saints, who held on to a 3-point lead thanks to 2 free throws by Streidl.
The Saints inbounded with 23.3 seconds left and crossed midcourt, but Childs stole the ball and pushed it ahead to junior guard Sam Sutter, who had already buried 6-of-10 attempts from 3-point range. Sutter's 3-point attempt didn't go, but he was fouled with 8.9 seconds left.
Sutter sank 2-of-3 free throws to cut the deficit to 49-48, but senior Drew Vazquez calmly sank 2 bonus free throws with 5.3 seconds left for the final margin.
South Elgin freshman point guard Jake Maestranzi rushed up court and got the ball to Jordt on the left wing for a 3-point attempt, but his shot was slightly long at the buzzer.
The loss was a lesson for South Elgin, which this week was named the No. 1 seed in the Class 4A Bartlett regional. The Saints were given the No. 4 seed. The teams could face each other again in a regional semifinal.
"I thought our kids came out flat after seeing they were the No. 1 seed in the regional," Storm coach Chaz Taft said. "Our kids have to learn how to play with that. That's the one thing with having a young group of kids, not knowing the factor of that and playing in big games like this after getting that seed. They just don't realize yet what it's all about."
Sutter finished with a game-high 22 points for South Elgin, which was held to 17-of-41 shooting against the Saints' combination of 1-3-1 and 2-3 zone defenses.
Vazquez finished with 10 points and senior Zack Burns had 9 for the Saints.