South Elgin ousts St. Charles East
In a game where every made basket felt more like double the actual point value, South Elgin executed its spread offense to perfection down the stretch Tuesday night.
Making all 4 of its field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter, top-seeded South Elgin (15-12) escaped with a 41-37 victory over fourth-seeded St. Charles East (14-14) in Class 4A regional tournament semifinal action on the Saints’ home floor.
After a 12-foot runner from sophomore Kendall Stephens pulled the Saints to within 29-27 with 6:11 remaining, Storm coach Chaz Taft called a timeout to discuss strategy.
“We told them, ‘guys, you can’t just sit back — you’ve got to attack the 1-3-1 (zone defense),” said Taft.
Moments later, sophomore point guard Jake Maestranzi delivered a perfect pass to Matt Hattendorf for a layup to make it 31-27.
The basket helped fuel a 6-0 run that also included point-blank buckets from Dillon Gardner and Sam Sutter and enabled South Elgin to build its biggest lead of the night at 35-27 with 2:51 left.
“We did a great job of recognizing the back side of the zone and where our guys were,” said Taft.
Trailing 37-30 with 2:18 left, the Saints made one last comeback attempt by scoring the game’s next 5 points.
First, a baseline jumper from Stephens (game-high 13 points) narrowed the gap to 37-32 before a 3-pointer from the top of the key by junior Johnny Hondlik (7 points, 4 rebounds) cut the deficit to 37-35 with 33.1 seconds remaining.
After Gardner split a 1-and-1 with 24.7 seconds left, Stephens landed awkwardly on his back while leaping for the rebound of the missed free throw.
It took the 6-4 guard a few minutes before getting back on his feet, and he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 that could have made it a 1-point game. Sutter (9 points) canned a pair of foul shots with 17 seconds remaining to ice the victory for the Storm.
“I think it’s partly my fault because those two free throws definitely could’ve helped us,” said Stephens. “I need to learn how to come through.”
Saints coach Brian Clodi was pleased with his team’s effort, especially at the defensive end.
“We forced 18 turnovers so we won that war,” said Clodi. “I know we lost the rebound battle (26-14) which definitely hurts when you give them those second chances. But we left every ounce of energy on the floor.
“If you’re going to get beat, that’s how we wanted to get beat. They had the lead and we just couldn’t get over that hump.”
South Elgin, which led 9-6 after one quarter, stretched its halftime margin to 19-15 and didn’t allow a second-period field goal by the Saints.
“I thought we did a good job in the first half of really taking them out of their sets,” said Taft. “I think we took six charges, and Matt (Hattendorf) had four of them. He does the little things that nobody sees. You see the charges he takes but you don’t see the rotations he makes on the pick-and-roll. He was outstanding.”
Hattendorf, one of three Storm players to finish with 9 points, added a team-high 8 rebounds and numerous floor burns.
“I take pride in being that guy in the rotations who gets to loose balls, takes charges and is there to back my teammates up when they get beat,” said Hattendorf.
Spencer Motley added 8 points and 3 assists for the Saints.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in here because they fought so hard,” said Clodi. “We knew we could play with anybody. I just wish we could be playing on Friday.”