South Elgin has enough to hold off Elk Grove

South Elgin gave Elk Grove's junior-heavy lineup a baptism by fire in the season's first eight minutes Monday night.

Quick learners, those same young Grenadiers recovered from a 15-point deficit to later hold South Elgin's feet to the fire in a tense final minute before the Storm escaped with a 48-46 decision at the 25th Annual Chuck Mitchell Thanksgiving Boys Basketball Tournament at Fenton.

The Grens trailed 47-41 after South Elgin's Eric Stazy split a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left, but Elk Grove's John Lorenz (9 points) drove for a layup to make it a 4-point game with 23 seconds to play.

After Devin Neill pressed the Storm into their 27th turnover of the game, Elk Grove inbounded to Justin Flores in the corner. The senior guard calmly drained his third 3-pointer of the game to trim the deficit to 47-46 with 6.2 seconds remaining.

"I was thinking that we might have a chance to come back and win the game at that point," said Flores, who led his team with 14 points. "That pressure toward the end really helped out."

South Elgin's long inbounds pass was deflected out of bounds by Elk Grove, which subsequently fouled Matt Downing with .8 seconds to play. Downing split 2 free throws for the final margin. The Grenadiers were unable to heave a desperation shot before the buzzer.

"I do think we showed a lot of character coming back, but we have to have higher expectations from the get-go and not put ourselves in that position," Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman said.

South Elgin blitzed the Grens in the first period, 21-6, spurred on by 12 of returning senior guard Sam Sutter's game-high 19 points and 6 points from returning senior forward Dillon Gardner, who finished with 9.

"We got off to a quick start but we didn't keep pushing it," said Downing, who finished with 8 points and 11 rebounds. "We should have finished the game off early."

An injury and foul trouble complicated matters for South Elgin. Sophomore point guard Jake Maestranzi, a returning starter, turned an ankle in the first quarter and didn't return, though coach Chaz Taft called him day to day. And Sutter and senior guard Martin Duarte both played sparingly in the second quarter and second half due to foul trouble.

"Yeah, but you can't make excuses like that," Downing said. "Our bench has to play through it."

"It happens," Sutter agreed. "You have to deal with adversity in the game. Someone else has to step up."

Duarte and Sutter returned to the lineup early in the fourth quarter as South Elgin made its push to fend off the Grens, who had closed to within 34-33. After Gardner's scoop shot for a bucket provided breathing room, Duarte scored on a putback to put the Storm up 38-33 with 5:35 to play shortly before he fouled out.

Brandon Carson's putback with 5:02 left lifted South Elgin ahead by 7 points, and the Storm needed every point to hold on down the stretch due to turnovers.

"We had guys turning the ball over who had played before," Taft said. "Just play fundamental basketball. We're small. Let's play small ball. Let's understand what we have to do in our offense to get guys shots and not try to do it all ourselves. We didn't do that tonight and that's the reason why the score was the way it was."

South Elgin resumes tournament play against Lake Park today at 6 p.m. Elk Grove aims for its first victory against host Fenton at 7:45 p.m.